Cowering in my bedroom after flooding at this pretty lemonary rental š
- salli443
- Jan 28
- 5 min read
This morningās storm completely blindsided us... There was no weather warning, no heads-up from the weather apps, just sudden, intense flooding that hit us twice! It battered the front of our rental so hard that it saturated the first floor and soaked upstairs too. In fact, the minute I had finished mopping the kitchen, which was the worst hit, a second round of flooding went overhead and I had to repeat the effort as the waters rushed back in again.
A little worried about the parasol and whether or not it will open given its hard fall into the marble table outside in one big gust of wind just now. Thankfully, the wrought iron frames and legs of the garden furniture means that they are going nowhere in these 30km an hour gales!
We suspect the storm was especially bad because we live on a hill, and the road drains seem to overflow and seep straight into the top of our property. Couple that with the fact that the courtyard drain is small and the high winds blew a ton of oak leaves and pine needles from next door's garden into the top yard. All of this debris quickly piled into the lower yard as the deluge got heavier, flooding it in minutes. Meanwhile, I found myself frantically sweeping out water with the kind of speed and determination youād expect from a lifeguard on an emergency rescue mission - heart palpitating too, especially as I felt the additional burden of it not being my property.
Weird, as there was absolutely no weather warning this morning. Apologies for my potty mouth!!
It's at this point that we needed sand bags! I'm not sure why I thought the dog mattress was a good deterrent to the wrath of heavy flood rainwater, but worth a go? Of course, it made zero difference as the water found its way into the kitchen astonishingly quickly, which sent me into panic-mode and my heart rate sped up, and the clarity of focus was the best it's been in a while.
I also realised (on a teeny tiny scale) just how scary it is to face Mother Nature when she's ruthlessly showing her might. The whole experience was an unwelcome adrenaline rush. There really is not much you can do about it when the water seeps under the kitchen door at an alarming speed, filling half the room with dirty rainwater whilst Daisy dog looks on, wondering what on earth is going on and when can she go on her walk? As a diligent dog owner, this is always twice daily but today we need to keep safe as the winds are wild and the roads lined with Italian cypress, olive, pine and oak trees. It's just too risky to take a stroll right now.
Inconveniently, the second huge deluge was just as bad as the first. The wind picked up, the floodwaters surged into the kitchen again, this time flooding the bedroom even more and quickly entering the basement too, where I used bed sheets at hand to slow down the flow. In fact, even the chimney recess was soaked through, and on mopping it, I realised just how much ash and cr*p was left in there as the mop was completely blackened afterwards, but the chimney breast looked like new.
The unexpectedness of this storm felt like we were living through a (small-scale) natural disaster. My cortisol levels were sky-high all morning and now Iāve finally collapsed upstairs, curled up on the bed, recovering from anxiety overload and typing this all out ā which is somewhat cathartic, though on a tangent, I get sad about the origin of the word 'Cathartic' when it's from Pope Innocent III eliminating Catharism in Languedoc, France.
Whatever, before I knew it, the house was getting a second soaking. Please excuse my potty mouth in the video, we were not forewarned of this freak storm and despite seeing torrential rain many a time, have never experienced anything like this! That said, I guess it is ridiculously tame when compared to the weather extremes we witness on the news almost daily - the deadly landslides, floods, fires and avalanches etc going on in the rest of the world, but it certainly caught us off guard, and I'm not downplaying it.
Warning: Excuse my expletives.
The rain has finally stopped, but the wind is still blowing at 30kph and I've just filmed it from my (now dry) bedroom, although this was a lull and it was much stronger only minutes ago.
Thankfully, my daughter knows nothing of any of this. She is at school and has sent me a short WhatsApp video of the howling wind and rain she can hear from her desk. The sheer panic and mad mopping and towel laying going on here for the last few hours is something that she is blissfully unaware of!
I digress, but the only other time recently that I've had unexpected encounters with water, was when walking Daisy dog and spotting water bottles left out on doorsteps and wondering what the heck they were for. Was it some kind of purifying religious practice, or drinks for locals left over from the summer months, or for passing dogs/cats? The mind boggled.
Apparently, this simple move of putting a bottle of water on the doorstep deters passing cats and dogs from marking their territory. So there you have it, pee management on the doorstep.
The upside to the biblical floods this morning, is that the kitchen, living room, basement and bedroom tiles are super clean, and the landlady is sending a guy round soon to sort the drains. It also means I have earned a Prosecco or two for tonight.
This is how Dash cat dealt with all the drama:
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