It occured Saturday evening sometime when the power went out.
"Can't you flip it back on?"
"No, the power is out."
"Should I go down and try?"
"No it won't do anything, we have no flashlight."
Call power company only get automated message that it is not business hours but leave info, then it says they are attending all over area, quick as possible. I hear something fall. "Oh you hear that branch outside fall mom?" I say. Never found out if it was a branch or the empty fridge that overturned when water behind wall gushed in. Me mom slept on couch, went to bed early, but couldn't sleep. Heard noises in basement, it wasn't the cats in Diana's room, she was hearing the noises downstairs too. We thought it was an animal, called 911. It is now around 3-4am police arrive within 5minutes. I think 'I hope its not a bear' and think wow thabk god I didn't go down there. I sit in Diana's room on the floor in the dark, hearing the cats munch on food. Few minutes later Diana comes back in, "Heather I have bad news." My mind goes blank because I cannot imagine what she could possibly be talking about, nothing comes to my mind.
Then she says, "I'm so sorry the basement is flooded." Panic, rush, try to see how much water, two cops there, it looks deep try to step in take one two steps off stairs where water begins but its almost to my knee and I realize the furrther I step in the higher it will get, maybe to my waist. Water is about 3ft. high I figure. We have a 200 sq. basement. Cops say firemen will be there in morining. We can't do anything, anything at all, we are helpless, that is what strikes and terrifies me the most, more then the damage the water is doing. The more time goes by with the boxes and posessions submerged in the water the more damage. All my father's things, all his books (not all all but 80% rest upstairs), all his records, his tapes over the years audio and video hundreds. Me and Diana wake mom and like we said to each other she won't really understand till she fully wakes up. And she wakes up half awake, eyes squinting not really opening asking "What? What?"
I wonder how much she will understand, because she has no hearing aids and no lights on to read lips and she's not fully awake. Mom tells me later she thought we meant this bit of water, she was thinking 'oh a flood, that's not so bad.' Not realizing we really mean a full on fuckin flood, she is horrified and numbed out later on to the point I notice she is dissasocieting while the firemen are draining pumping the water out she is going over photography 2010 book, reading outloud to me. Couple times I tell her to please not read out loud.
I went to sleep after cops left, mom went back to bed and Diana left for work at 4:30am, she took over time shift for Sunday. I don't sleep well or remember if I even dreamed. When I woke up and it was light out and the firemen were still not here like the cops said they would be because its light out now, and its 10am. I try to memorize and 50 states in my head and then write them down. In my head it does not go away if the water is rising and rising what if it hits the basement ceiling, what would/could I do? Nothing, It takes me an hour after being paralyzed which such anxiety and fear of this to finally get the courage to go check and I see it has not risen. Its sort of comforting. I call 911 again and the woman says we are on the list. Little bit later the fire chief explains they would have been there much sooner if they had known the power was still out. Diana had called the landlord and when the power comes back on the sub pump will pump it out automatically. The power comes back on around 5-6pm that evening, Sunday evening. I am so numb and helpless feeling at same time, its pressing in my brain how there is nothing I can do, nothing, waiting, nothing, waiting, even the firemen can't drain it out in a hurry. Later on they use 3 pump hoses to get water out. 5-6 extra hours wasted because of those 2 fuckin cops didn't relay message. About 10 firemen, volunteer it looks like. I can't imagine ever taking on such a task, its not idiotic or anything like that, its just I can't imagine myself at all. What do some of these guys see? It sometimes must be devastating I think. The firemen who comes to the door looks young, the oldest my age, but I think he is younger, he looks like an ex-boyfriend of an old friend of mine from Hopatcong HS, though I know its not him.
The young man is so sincere it does calm me. Later on looking into basement where he is standing on a ladder to open window and holding pump out (thank fuckin lly there are windows) And everything is floating swirled around. I looks even worse but I know its from the water draining out through hoses that touch the crest of a foot before the woods in the backyard. Now thinking glad we had a big backyard. I look at this past senetence and realize I do mean had and not have.
We are no longer going to rest here and on our backs we leave with fewer artifacts of our long dark past.