Friday, August 1, 2008

Dolly: The aftermath!

Well for us, the damage was moderate...mostly roof. Others' not so lucky. The storm drains overflowed in town and peoples homes have 3-4 feet of water in them. Other places have better drainage than here. Here, there is a levy system for the Rio Grande, but most places have built up small earthen levies around the outsides of their property to hold water in...because it is so dry, when you water you don't want it to run out and into the ditches, well this system has worked against us with the torrent of rain. Water stood in yards for days...allowing the mosquitos to breed and hatch. Hords of mosquitoes..black...clouds of mosquitoes, immune it seems to every spray known to man. Hundreds at the door waiting for a meal to come out. Hundreds swarm into the vehicle when the door opens. Hundreds swarm onto you when you get out. "Off" is our friend...which is only a deterrant!

The adjuster is here...still measuring and computing damage...and we..we were lucky. We didn't lose any food due to being able to use a generator most of the time (and planning, I filled every empty space with water bottles full of frozen water (solid water stays frozen longer than crushed ice) and had 40 pounds of bagged ice in the freezer to keep it cold! The roof and underpinning are our main concerns. The roof...before it rains again...needs to be totally replaced, and the underpinning needs back on to decrease our energy consumption and allow the house to be really cool again. But, we know angels were watching over us. It could have been much worse.

1 comment:

Debbie Y. said...

How ingenious of you and the ice thing so you wouldn't lose any food. Luckily you didn't suffer more damage than you did. We are not expecting rain for a while so may be you will be able to get the roof done before another bout of rain. Horrible about the mosquitos. I abhor those pesky pests.