Settling into a groove

When it's good, its a groove, when it's bad, it's a rut.

We're groovin here in Washington County. For the past couple of days, we've been trying to root out where the damage is. This disaster isn't like hurricane Rita where you just look for the blue tarps on the roof.

First of all, you have to define the term 'storm damage' with people. In that stoic midwestern style and folksy Wisconsin accent, people just tell you 'Oh it was no big deeeeel. We just trew da rugs out and got on with it'. It's actually hard to find where the damage is here because most of it was a result of the water table making acquaintances with the surface. Basements being in between this rendezvous resulted in a lot of wet basements.

When water mixes with drywall and any other porous material, it forms yuckiness in the basement. 3 weeks after the storm, it forms toxic mold. My biggest worry is people (most often older folks) who just don't want to 'be a bother' to anyone. It sounds kind of silly, but I'm trying to get these people to register with FEMA when they 'only had a few inches' of water. That few inches, depending on the basement, can cause a household to get sick.

The routine has been to visit a town or village hall, root out some clues to where the damage is and then pound on doors the rest of the day preaching the gospel of 1-800-621-FEMA. Hey...its a job. If you keep looking at my Google map, you'll see where we've been.

Off to write reports now...