Around 10:45am all hell broke loose at work. Bruce, my co-worker and good friend, noticed water seeping in under the shipping doors near the server room. He opened them an water poured in. It looked like something out of a submarine movie. Everyone was leaping in to action. I ran to the outside of the shipping doors, and it the water was deep. I took off my shoes and socks and waded in up to my knees, fishing around for the drain, which I got clear. I stayed there for a while, when the corkscrew pattern in the water stopped or slowed, I re-cleared the drain, but even with the drain it wasn’t keeping up.
I went back around to the rear of the building, from the upper floor and went back down the lower floor to help on the inside. There were two more lower floor doors to check. Sure enough the next door had water rushing under it just as I approached. We got people laying down towels, looking for things to stop the water with and squeegee the water out. I pulled my shoes off (again) and ran into the water by that set of doors. the drains were 100% clean, there was just too much water.
I ran toward the south side of the building through the mud when my boss and another co-worker came running towards me out of the rain. That door was holding the water out, but the water level was above the basement windows water level. Water was seeping in through the windows, and behind/through the phone panel in the corner of the building (not a good place for water). Later we learned the downspout broke off that corner of the building causing the water to back up there.
About that time, I ran out with another co-worker to get sand, towels, blankets, shop vacs, etc… anything to combat the water. We could not head north to the store we wanted, the road was flooded out and cars were clearly stuck. We did a 180 and went to the small True Value near Springfield Ave. We got bags of sand, absorbent tarps, two shop vacs and a pair of really big squeegees.
By the time we got back, water was no longer pouring in and we could walk to the areas that were previously submerged but there was still plenty of clean up. We have the lower level doors sandbagged in anticipation of more heavy rain that is expecting this afternoon.
The next few hours were spent setting up sump pumps, heaters, fans, etc…. and keeping computers off the floor.
I am wet, drenched to the bone and cold. Now that the adrenaline and excitement have worn off I am quite tired. This is going to count as my exercise for the day.
Wow…
Me, protecting our servers!
The radar image just after the downpour.
The water level in the shipping area was at the line in this photograph.
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