Today in the 'Burg

UPDATE: Mom and Dad are now at home doing some cleanup.  The carpet is still damp and kind of smelly.  Disaster Restoration has been there and told them that basically the whole basement will need to be redone.  On the bright side, they are at home, and have the hydro and gas turned back on.  So now there's the cleanup and restoring trhe basement to deal with.  Please pray for them as this can be quite stressful.

Hey all,  you may or may not have heard, but the Sydenham river in Wallaceburg broke its banks today bring huge chunks of ice on roadways and yards.  Several roads here were closed, some homes evacuated, and er patients were diverted to Chatham hospital for a while.  They were contemplating evacuating the hospital.  Our road was fine, but Mom and Dad's area was under water for a while.  They had water in their yard.  When they left their house this morning they had to drive through about 2 ft deep water while trying to avoid large chunks of river ice.  When they got back later on, they found about 5-6 inches of water in their basement.  I left work a bit early today and stopped by their house.  Mom was pulling some of the file folders from their file drawer on the computer desk.  All of a sudden the smoke alarm sounded and we could smell something burning or smoldering, but we couldn't tell from where.  A few minutes later the smell was not so strong but still there.  Mom called the fire dept and a few minutes later, with sirens and horns a-blazing, there were 2 fire trucks and about 8 firefighters at the house.  They checked things out and turned off the gas and hydro.  Later the P.U.C. and disaster restoration showed up to pump out the water.  Mom and Dad came here for supper and now they are off to the Oak's Inn for a quiet night's sleep.  (The Oak's had a special rate for the local flood victims.)

I've added some photos I took with my phone of the flooded basement at 100 Baxter St.