Details on my home include this...
My home is a block house. The basement has a concrete floor. No cracks in it prior to this happening. So far I see no cracks in the exterior foundation. It is all in the floor and the interior walls. I understand now from all fo the comments that the pressure from the water outside is causing the inside cracks and buckling. But...if we don't pump out the water...then we cannot live in our homes as we will have no heat or hot water, not to mention the rising water in the basement could eventually reach the first floor - where the floors are all wooden floors (in my home at least) So..what do we do?
We had a city council meeting last night. Many of us attended to state our concerns. The Mayor declared a state of emergency and proposed to the county we be declared a disaster area. This goes to our County Commissioners for a vote and then on to the State. They are not sure how long that will take. This would bring in FEMA and from what I understand would offer us low interest loans to help fix up our homes. I really don't need another loan at this point...I have a home loan, a student loan and a car loan. Plus a loan I had to take out the last 2 years when the city shut off my gas for leaks. So I had to replace all of my gas lines running to my house, inside my house, replace my meter, my stove and my furnace. I am still paying on THAT loan. They shut me off in the middle of winter until I had it fixed. No help. Just a fee for shutting off and turning back on once I had it finished.
When I purchased my home, (a single mother of two small boys) I do not remember being explained the difference between flood insurance and the rider which I bought. But I cannot prove that. I was just happy and proud to be purchasing a home with a dry basement that we could use for additional living space. Maybe I got taken. Maybe I should have dug deeper. We have been through many rain storms int he past 6 years and I have never had a drop in the basement until this past week.
Now that you all have informed me of what flood insurance is really all about and how and where to purchase it, I will be better educated for the future. I am not sure that I will be able to purchase anything at this point - but will try. Our town is built over sub-terrainean streams. So you would think actual flood insurance would be encouraged. But it isn't.
Part of the problem is that our town still relies on sink holes for getting rid of water - from what I understand, the water table is so high - there is nowhere left for the water to go. We need a new system for getting rid of the water or this will happen over and over again. For some reason, the areas of town that normally flood - did not flood this time and the areas of town that usually don't flood - flooded. That points to a problem in the water removal system. They are looking for a blocked drain and adding additional drain pipes to extend the water disposal area. Not sure how long this will take or if it will work.
In the meantime...our water has not moved on our street. We all continue to pump. But wonder if we should stop due to the collapsing of our walls (drywall and/or plaster) and our foundations. But...we all have children in school - and jobs that we just can't sit back and ignore. So we pump out the water to keep our furnaces dry and our pilots lit on our water tanks. None of us can afford to go live in a hotel whie they figure out this problem.
Thank you all for your information and help. It has really been very informative and has helped me more than what information I received from my insurance company and/or the city.
By the way, we don't live in a "hole" as one gentleman put it. Bellevue is a very nice town. I came to this site looking for guidance and help. Not criticism. Thank you to those who offered that rather than simply criticize our location and tell us to move. That would be the easy way out..but it is not that simple to just pick up and go. Home loans don't just go away and problems don't fix themselves. We want to be part of finding a solution. We don't want to see our town die - we want to figure out ways to make it more liveable. God knows the economy is not helping. Jobs are scarce everywhere. A nice, safe community is really hard to find these days. We have that here. We would like to stay.
Thank you all for being part of the solution. It really was helpful.
snipped-for-privacy@>>I have lived in my home for 6 years. When I bought the home, one of the