We've been cooped up the past couple days weathering a mix of storms and hurricane Sandy, dubbed "Frankenstorm" in the area. Storms have never really affected us in the past because we've never had a basement and our trees were far enough away not to threaten us directly.
It didn't occur to us until too late that our sump pump in the basement would stop working if the power went out. Our inspector had recommended we get a backup battery powered pump, but it just hasn't be top priority the past couple months. If the pump stops working, water builds up in the well and it can flood the entire basement. Pretty dumb. The whole point of a sump pump is to direct water away from your house, but it doesn't work when you need it most--a storm that knocks out power.
I was talking with a neighbor in the same boat and he said he'd been all over town looking for a battery backup, but everywhere was sold out. Smarty-pants me went online and ordered one overnight from Amazon and thought we were good.
Well, I later realized these things have to be professionally installed. "Easy installation" requires cutting and soldering pipe to the pump; probably not the best idea in the middle of a storm. Not to mention that all deliveries were halted because of the storm and it still hasn't arrived. We determined that a generator was our best bet to keep the sump pump running in the event of a power outage.
So morning of the storm, I'm running all over in search of a generator. Ry called around and found 4 left at Home Depot in Manassas. The models left were $700, but I figured we better be safe than sorry and got there as the last one was being sold.
So we said a few prayers and figured we wait it out and hope for the best. It was a strong and kind of scary storm. Tess kept waking up and ending up sleeping with me; Ryan on the couch. Our power flickered a few times, but never went out. We checked the sump periodically, and it did its job diligently.
Our home and townhome are fine. Keith and Wendy avoided a near-miss from a HUGE tree that came down and hit their shed. They said it sounded like a bomb exploded when this tree went down.
Ry's back to work tomorrow after two days at home. We've had lots of "together" time. The kids did pretty well; very nice having a larger space to be together in. Tess burned some creative energy. Below are two of her storm projects.
Tess and Ryan playing "shoe store" with a foot measuring device that she made from a box our blinds came in. Amazingly, it provides pretty accurate foot measurements. Although I hate to see the customer that needs a size 38 shoe.
And this is a "playhouse" Tess and I made from one of our temporary paper blinds.
Here's video of the aftermath from our place. Not too eventful, for which we are immensely grateful.
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