Coulda been a lot worse

[Granny Gremlin]

So I requested an insurance quote for my newish studio last year.  Months later still no word.  A week ago I harassed them about it, they swore the quote came through and they'd have someone call me back the next day.  No call.

Last night I got the call that the building my studio is in got flooded.

Motherf*$!er!

My car was in the shop (the prospect of lost gear coming on the heels of a $1300 suspension job) so I called my studio partner to pick me up and we headed down.

We got lucky, so damn lucky.  The guy in the unit behind us said he had 1-2" of water, so I was worried as the floor slopes down from there to our door, but luckily the wall between us kept the water from coming in that way, instead the path of least resistance was flowing around our unit and then in under the front door.  We had about an inch to 1.5 (uneven floor) in about half the room diagonally.  The elevation of the pedalboards saved the pedals.  We lost a few cardboard boxes (styrofoam saved a Minibrute synth by keeping it 3" off the floor), one of my snares got wet and a pair of cans that fell off the drums onto the floor were soaked through, but might be fine.  The drum corner is the lowest point in the room but the garrish (pastel pink and blue; ties the place together really  ) 2" thick rug under the drums saved the bass drum (there was a dry spot in the rug underneath it when I moved it - fookin miraculous).  When we took the rug out there was a puddle underneath.  All the recording gear and racks of expensive stuff + wiring were on the high side of the room and dry. Some cabs that were on the floor got a little wet  on the bottom (including half of the bottom of my MM 115RH cab, and my partner's DIY leslie, which whicked up a lot of water due to lack of finish) . ... and my guitarist's jam shoes (converse hightops), completely waterlogged. The water was clean (water main froze and cracked during the cold snap and then thawed on the weekend gushing everywhere - not sewage or lakewater), so the things that did get wet should be fine after drying out.  Moved gear around to let it dry off, tossed the rug outside, dripping water all the way.  Overall feel so relieved and lucky, as does my partner who thanked me profusely for keeping as much shit as I did off the floor and especially for building that shelf in the storage corner that keeps the guitars 4' off the floor... all but one, an ES335 style Harmony that had been sanded down.  It was in a soft case and about 1/2" of the butt end is wet - should be fine, if slightly watermarked - doesn't even look like it soaked all the way through the wood, just some surface absorption.  As he said; "well now we don't have to worry about the winter drying all our gear out."

My landlord (I'm sub-letting a room in a larger unit) used to be a maintenance guy in the building and told me the studios in the unit just next to ours are 5' lower grade.  Feel really bad for those dudes; their shit was all under water.

Later today gonna grab me mop n bucket from home, as well as a dehumidifier from my folk's place and head back down to clean up more; staying positive despite this horseshoe up my ass making me feel constipated.

[gearHed289]

Dang man, good luck with the clean up!

[OldManC]

Sounds like you mostly dodged a really bad bullet. You must've had some good karma saved up! I'm glad.

[Pilgrim]

I'm betting that you will find an insurance company that will respond faster.

Glad to hear that damage was minimal!

[Highlander]

Who was it that said "there is no such thing as bad (or conversely good) karma; only karma"... was it John Lennon...?

I was involved in what should have been the late Kenny accident where my van got totalled - ripped open and overturned - I walked away after being mostly out the windscreen, dragged along the road, and the van ending up upside down facing the way it came from, on the pavement on the opposite side of the road - a fireman and an ambulance man commented to me that they had never seen anyone walk away from this sort of event before - a friend made a comment... someone's looking out for you...
The nice young lady in the sports car that hit me and as my van rolled onto the roof of her car started screaming and I swear did not stop for ages... we both shared the same ambulance on the way to the hospital... said she never saw me... my right of way, btw... I had torn clothing, some scraping on my back and head, and some broken teeth... back's been an issue, though...

You got lucky... someone's looking out for you...

[Granny Gremlin]

Don't I bloody know it. 

The guys next door still have 2 feet of water.  The guy behind (wall to wall carpet) is still soggy.  Turns out his room slopes away from mine on that high common side; saved my ass but he's got a bit of a bog in the opposite corner.  Removing the drum rug  + the heat cranked overnight and there is no wet spots anywhere but the innermost part of the drum corner in my room (I knew there was a reason I kept the floor bare/live and acoustically treated the ceilings instead). Dudes across the hall from us are fine too.  They had some water but slopes and lack of carpets worked for them as it did for me. The guy with the raised floor had the most water, but was mostly OK.

Building owner called a company in to deal with it, which is nice (don't think he is obligated to). ... Or maybe because, apparently, the main that broke set off an alarm was in the club next door (other side from deluged dudes), guys came to fix it but only dealt with the kitchen, reset the alarm and left, not checking the basement where a 2" pipe had also burst, so it kept pouring all weekend.  Basically a great deal of water flowed through my room but never stayed there for any period of time.  Since my room is pretty dry now, and has all but 1 wall common to hallways, they aren't cutting my walls.  The dude behind me is having holes put in everywhere to prevent mold.  I talked to the foreman and confirmed that they only need to do his room, and replace the bottom 2' of sheetrock outside in the hallway.  Don't have to move out or worry about dust from wall-mending in my room - just seal the door up when they do it.  So I locked up and left em to it. 

It's a mess from turning things upside down everywhere, but after we put things back in place we're probably gonna jam tomorrow (as scheduled).  Something about Neil Young and AC/DC.

[Basvarken]

Phew that's quite a story Jake. Glad it didn't do too much damage.

[Highlander]

Powderfinger followed by Hell Ain't A Bad Place To Be...?

[Granny Gremlin]

More like Keep On Rockin in the Free World and Let There Be Rock/For Those About to Rock (We Salute You)/That's the way I Wanna Rock 'n' Roll/Can't Stop Rock 'n' Roll/Rock 'n' Roll Dream/Rocking All the Way/Rock the Blues Away/Rock or Bust

[Highlander]

Do I detect a theme here...

In the circumstances, an encore of Down By The River, maybe Hell Or High Water; possibly Up To My Neck In You...? oh yeah... Cortez (he came dancing across the water) The Killer...?