Very OT: i need some quick and important advice.

[Phantom&Phitch]

OK, so my parents are in scotland, the basement is flooding from the floorwalls, i cleared out the basement and called 911 for some sandbags, the thing is they said we wouldnt get any bc they are all going to houses near the river and to the river itself.

Does anyone know how to make a sand bag or where i could get materials for one?

its kind of important bc 3 years ago we had a mine subsidance that took 1/4 of our basement and we're not supposed to have moisture, let alone flooding down there.

sorry for this to be off topic, but i just needed some help/results quickly and there are a ton of people on here tonight

thanks -

John C.

Pittston PA

[SassyMama]

1. Call your insurance agent and tell him/her what you have done.

2. Call your parents and ask for their advice....assure them you can take care of it, but you need to find out what they want you to do.

3. Call the local fire department and ask for their assistance.

4. Call the contractor that did the work on the basement and guaranteed that it would not happen again and let him know that it is flooding.

Document everything and every call you make!! Time included...keep every scrap of paper involved. Also make sure that whatever happens that you are safe.

[thelittleman]

Sandbags will probably take a very long time to make. You should probably call your insurance agent and parents (as said above) first and ask them if there is anything else you can/should do. As far as sandbags, it's probably very hard to find the supplies and all at 2 in the morning.

[Phantom&Phitch]

Thank you both for your advice.

My friend drove me down to the river and we "borrowed" about 15 sandbags, we took them from random spots so i hope they wont be missed too much. I called our insurance agent and he's going to come down and check out the situation. I'm going to call my parents soon. I originally called our local fire department but the you automatically get rerouted to 911, so that didnt come in handy much. I also called DEP (department of enviormental protection) and the OSM (office of surface mining) and they are both sending a person down here to look at the situation.

thank you guy for all your help,

sincerely John

[Huntington Mallets]

Wow......I laughed at the fact this was on a drum corps forum

(In a good way)

[thelittleman]

Thank you both for your advice.

My friend drove me down to the river and we "borrowed" about 15 sandbags, we took them from random spots so i hope they wont be missed too much. I called our insurance agent and he's going to come down and check out the situation. I'm going to call my parents soon. I originally called our local fire department but the you automatically get rerouted to 911, so that didnt come in handy much. I also called DEP (department of enviormental protection) and the OSM (office of surface mining) and they are both sending a person down here to look at the situation.

thank you guy for all your help,

sincerely John

Haha, "borrowed" them? I'm sure they won't mind. I can just imagine two people driving up to a river and randomly grabbing 15 sandbags in the middle of the night.

Good luck with the situation!

[Ryan H. Turner]

Hi...from a southern California perspective, and oh yeah, I'm a 911-Fire Communications Dispatcher in my REAL life, sandbags should be provided to you free by your local city yard or, in the case of the Orange County Fire Authority for whom I work diligently (shameless plug for the OCFA), we provide up to 20 free bags during times of bad weather. I assume you're back in the swamp that used to be known as the east coast-Mid Atlantic area. I don't understand your particular 911 system, but out here, if you call 911 and you have potential property damaging level flooding and activate the 911 system, unless we're just "##### to elbows" (as we say when we're real busy in times of extreme emergency), we're obligated to at least come out and help as best as we can. Why is that not an option for your fire department back there? Seems awfully strange to me.

Second point...we have advised people to check out their local Lowes, Home Depot or other home improvement centers. You can always purchase sandbags from them--well, I use the term ALWAYS like I know what everyone's inventory is. But GENERALLY--there, that's a better word.

And can I just add one more bit of advice. Life before property. Seems common sense, but you'd be surprised how you may get wrapped in stuff. Just make sure if you're having severe flooding that you keep YOURSELF safe first--your home comes SECOND to your safety. Sorry--that's just the 911 dispatcher inside of me making sure I "dot my T's and cross my I's." Or something like that. :)

[JohnZ]

I hope you are doing better today P&P. So sorry to hear about your predicament.

FWIW for ongoing or future problems:

1. try local farm/feed stores. they usually have feed/grain bags for sale.

2. local public works - they have bags and sand in ready supply.

BUT

One thing I am assuming from your post is that this is a private property issue - water seeping from your basement walls and floors. typically if it is private property, public agencies like public works or the FD might help some as 'community relations', but are not obligated to do so. In fact, they may be focused on community wide issues and cannot attend to private property problems. best to check with those agencies in advance for clarification.

3. If you have had damage before, and now you have water seepage, I strongly urge you to install a sump pump. Unless this water came from overwhelmed runoff or sewerage lines (which may be a PW or FD issue), you likely have a hidden spring problem, and will happen again.

4. If all else fails, bags of Kitty litter or mulch work in a pinch as sandbags. If you are in a desperate situation.

best of luck and hope today is sunny.