Randy's Winding Road BLOG

Flood Recovery - Cedar River Flood 2009 - Post 5 - Wrapping Up

It's October, and we are wrapping up repairs from the January flooding. Some of the wrap-around decks were damaged when the flood water floated the decks, lifting them off of the supports.

Deck Replacement

The decking was not covered by the insurance, so it was not included in the repairs completed earlier in the year.

This was mostly an original deck, primarily consisting of 2X6 fir. After looking at all of the materials available, we chose cedar, and I'm glad we did. I had the carpenters remove the old nails, and we recycled most of the old wood. Meanwhile, the new cedar looks good.

New Cedar Decking

When we returned from vacation in Hawaii to our flooded home, it was a battle for survival. We hired a company to handle the restoration of our house, and moved everything out of the flooded first floor into storage in one day. The restoration process began, and we spent months living on the second floor.

Moving Out in January 09

Photos:

 

Our endless summer is coming to an end, and local governments, businesses, and residents in the Renton area are racing to build barriers to protect property along the Green River, which flows through the Kent valley through Auburn,Kent and Renton.

http://www.kirotv.com/news/21256216/detail.html and http://www.pnwlocalnews.com/south_king/ren/news/63774177.html

I'm hoping these preparations will not be tested this Winter.

 

Cedar River 2009 Flood - Post 2 ... "Homecoming"

We left Hawaii on Saturday January 10th in the afternoon. It's always a scramble to get into the line at the Honolulu airport for the agricultural inspection, open the bag so the inspector can see what goodies my wife is sending home, and then wait to checkin the luggage, etc. We arrived in Seattle around 11:00 PM, and made it to the house sometime after midnight.

By then the river was pretty much back in it's banks. There was a light coating of mud on the driveway, and some on the decks. Inside the house, the area rugs were wet, and there was mud around in the corners. From the high water mark outside the main enterance, you could see that the water had just gotten a bit above the threshold.

My Son's car was parked in front of the garage. It had several inches of water standing on the floorboards. It started, but sounded like a boat as water was pumped out the tailpipe. I gave them a ride home and returned to move as much of the carpeting as I could out of the house and onto the decks.

Some of the lower lawn was still covered with water, and I could see a thick layer of sand on much of the lawn. By 3 AM I had moved the furniture off of the rugs, and had all but one heavy wool rug off of the maple floors.

 

More to come...