Back on Dry Ground

So I was in Cedar Rapids Iowa last weekend and it was an eye-opening experience. I had a pretty decent idea of what kind of work we would be doing on the houses we worked on (they were damaged by floods in June). I had done cleanup after a hurricane in Tarborro, NC a few years back and had seen what the houses looked like before rebuilding so I assumed we would be doing the demolition end of things on this trip.

I was correct. The houses were empty because all of the belongings had to be discarded due to water damage. I was right in that we would be tearing out the drywall and ceilings and walking on plywood floors because carpet, wood or lenolium would have been torn out already. I figured we might still be hauling out damaged belongings. All of these were correct. What I didn't expect was that there would still be between 3 and8 inches of mud, dried sewage, riverlife, and sludge in the basements that would need to be shoveled into five-gallon buckets and hauled upstairs and out side to the curb. Imagine having to put boots on to go into your basement and walking on a floor that you wouldn't recognize as even having concrete beneath. I honestly thought there was no concrete in the basement because it was so deep.

We did much work and heard the stories. I never thought about the fact that people are paying mortgages on houses that they cannot live in, that are not worth anything near what they are paying off in loans. I did not think about the fact that people would be camping in their front yards because they did not have people to stay with. I didn't think about the fact that evacuating from your house means having a short time to pick what belongings you want to take with you and not necessarily knowing that anything that did not come with you would be a total loss.

Eye-opening is the best way to describe the weekend. It was hard work and work that needed to be done. I feel blessed to have been able to help. It is a reminder that I truly am
living the dream!