I scrambled to move my music bag (flute, recorders, whistles) and music stand from in front of the fireplace. Then I found I had to push the bed over. Followed by moving my nativity collection from the mantle. The dripping got worse, and I disassembled the bed while I phoned the management company's emergency number. Then I called Mom while moving the nightstand and lamp as the dripping spread. I put pots and bowls under the worst of the drips.
By the time Mom and Bill arrived, I was emptying bookshelves and dumping books in the small room. My apartment is 450 square feet, so you can imagine there isn't a lot of space to move anything to. Once the dripping seemed to stabilize, I packed the nativity sets back into the "Christmas Boxes" while Mom tried to organize piles so that we could at least move around a little.
The maintenance person showed up, and he and Bill went to go look where the problem was. The tenant on the second floor wasn't home, but it turned out that the water actually originated from the third floor, where one of the tenants was taking a shower. For TWO HOURS she'd been taking a shower! It turns out that they'd called Roto Rooter (or some similar company) to take care of a clogged drain instead of calling the management company. I've never had a problem with the management company coming when needed in a timely manner, so I don't know what the were thinking! The guy who came punched a hole in the drain, so as she showered.. and showered... and showered... the water drained into the ceiling of the second floor apartment, then poured through her floor and into my ceiling and down between the walls.
I also kept an eye on my clothes closet and the back hall. Good thing, because I saw water start to come through the closet, and Mom and I emptied it into the front common hall. Later I moved the contents of my closet to the back seat of my car.
I spent the next few days with my mother while they made repairs. They thought they'd be done Tuesday, but I wasn't able to move back into my apartment until Thursday the 18th. They had to replace the carpeting and treat and repaint the walls. In many ways, I was very lucky. If this had happened the week before while I was in California for a meeting, a lot my stuff would have sustained damaged. The only thing they will have to replace is my mattress, which I couldn't get far enough away to avoid being splashed.
I think the maintenance person was surprised at how calm I was--at least by the time he arrived I'd finished panicking. And that I wasn't flying off the handle at him. Sometimes a little respect and professional treatment goes a long way. It wasn't his fault, and he did get up at 1:30 in the morning to drive through a nasty rain storm to come and take care of the problem as much as he could. And he was back before 9:00 a.m. with other workers to start cleaning up and making repairs.
I still have to order the new mattress, the winter storms really messed up delivery schedules, so I said I'd call back after Christmas. I'll be at my brother's for the week, so it won't be a major problem. I have almost everything put away, and except for the lighter carpet, you can't really tell I had an indoor rainstorm.
A couple of interesting things appeared in the water stains. This one on the ceiling
and this weird one on the wall:
Once the new mattress is here, and the last of my stuff is put away, I'll ask Lois to come and do a house blessing.
Peace,
Jeff
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