More flood stuff...

[gwendolyngrace]

So, y'know I said yesterday that there was a lot of flooding in Waltham?

Yeah.

My basement was not immune. Specifically, my *storage unit* in the basement. The one where I had books.

About 30 books with probably near-irreparable damage, including my senior yearbook from high school, a limited-edition "Order of the Phoenix", some books signed by the authors.... My dad's dissertation, some of the framed artwork he asked me to keep for him.... some are rare, some are out of print, a few are trade paperbacks easy to replace, but there's no extra money for that kind of thing right now.

About 20 books with medium damage, and another 30 or so with little to no damage, thankfully. The deluxe edition "Beedle the Bard" is okay inside, though the big case needs some repair. They're all drying out currently. I've got the worst ones in the bathtub with a fan on them; the medium-damaged ones are on the clothes drying rack. A few are outside. Some sheets and clothes that I'd set aside for a yard sale anyway, but that now have to be washed and dried.

There's stuff all over the place, drying out. Oy.

I have no idea if renters' insurance covers flood damage.

As losses go, really? Not so bad. The only thing that rips me up is the yearbook, and I'm working on saving that. I wish I could have saved the HP5, without having to tear off its box edition cover. No value left there. But the book will dry out.

I have to go report to unemployment and then I should shift laundry. Fun. Only - not.

Comments

[embroiderama]

That sucks so much. :( About a dozen years ago, I lost a bunch of books due to water damage from a fire in the apartment above mine. Water came pouring through the light fixtures, and then the firefighters tromped through, and the result was that books in my bookcases were fine, but any I'd been reading or looking at recently were swamped, and I had to move at the same time so there was no rescuing them. Even now I'm sometimes *sure* I should have a particular book, but it's not there.

[lapin-agile.livejournal.com]

That makes my stomach hurt just to think about it. (And how wrong is it that I immediately thought, 'That would make a good fictional scene for what it would reveal about the character who suffered it'...?)

I'm so sorry.

[imaginarycircus.livejournal.com]

OMG. That sucks!! I hope everything dries out and is more or less OK. I found books that have a little mold or ick on their covers can be wiped off with clorox bleach wipes and then wiped dry with paper towels without damaging or bleaching the cloth or paper.

[zorb]

Ack! I don't know if it's too late for this, but apparently the freezer is useful: http://lifehacker.com/5488295/save-water+damaged-books-docs-and-photos-by-putting-them-in-the-freezer

Good luck.

[gwendolyngrace.livejournal.com]

Good tip - that's cool, actually.

Unfortunately I have too many to stuff in the freezer... but the fan will stay on for a day or two and hopefully most of them will be usable.

And if not... really, it could have been a lot worse. There are only a couple I'm really worried about if they can't be dried out adequately, or if they dry by they wind up all screwy.

[beatricedwinter.livejournal.com]

Unfortunately, no...renters insurance doesn't cover flood damage. You'd have to have an additional policy for that. :-( I'm sorry to hear that you had so much damage. Boo! Maybe you can find a bookstore that helps with repairs?

[gwendolyngrace.livejournal.com]

Perhaps. There are only a couple books that look like they're going to be worth needing the repairs they need - chiefly my yearbook (the binding is very fragile now) and the Beedle the Bard. Maybe the Order of the Phoenix, although it's an "extra" copy for me (though it's the deluxe, so the binding is nicer). Some of the trade paperbacks are probably just going to need to be replaced, eventually. It's not a high priority right now, though.

(Really it could have been a LOT worse)

[llywela13.livejournal.com]

Urgh. Books! Sympathy.

In work I think I have access to the university's guidance on salvaging water damaged books. I'll try to dig it out later, when I get into the office.

Haveing been down the road

[bodgei.livejournal.com]

Fist off I'm so sorry. We get floods every few years the worst one was a little over 5 years ago - we had to do major repaires to the house and my part time job was shut down because of the flood for 4 months.

I've been told by psycologests that floods are the hardest disaster to get over - but not why LOL

On the more practical level - renters insurance probalby *dosen't* cover your losses (I'm guessing becasue homeowners dosn't cover floods) but if your land lord has flood insurance it might. Now I don't think Flood insurance is a requirement in MA (at least it wasn't when we looked at buying a house in Revere)