What a way to end the year! Our neighbor on the fifth floor had a pipe burst and it flooded the fourth floor and our flat and part of the second floor. Fortunately, it only ran down the wall behind the toilet (we hope) on the first floor, which is our office.
I heard water running but I thought it was in the bathtub from when Mel took a shower earlier today, that he had forgotten to turn off the cold water all the way. This happens sometimes – long story as to why, so I won’t go into that right now. But I was busy with something and didn’t go check right away. He heard it about a minute later and went in and water was pouring out of the ceiling where the water pipe goes through. I got dressed again and ran upstairs. Nina’s door was open and I realized right away it must not be her flat, but the one above. I rang her bell and she came to answer after several seconds had gone by and told me it was the 5th floor.
I came running back downstairs, grabbed a bucket and stood beside the toilet, holding it while water poured down the pipe. I wedged the bucket against the toilet handle (it’s on top, not the side) and the pipe, went into the kitchen and got a plastic bag. I wrapped the bag around the pipe to try and build a dam that would divert the water into the bucket instead of down onto the floor and thus down into the second floor flat. Within 5 minutes our doorbell rang and it was the daughter of our neighbor downstairs, telling me about the flood. I told her it was the 5th floor. Everything was ok with her then.
By this time water was beginning to come out of all sorts of cracks and crannies in our ceiling. The hallway ceiling was dripping, the kitchen was dripping, the toilet room was flooding – but the shower room had very little water at all. Figures! Mel was mopping up with towels everywhere he could while I continued to hold the bucket and catch as much as I could.
The water slowly began to cease pouring down the pipe so we realized that someone had turned off the water in the basement. I mopped and mopped the water off the toilet room floor until I couldn’t wring any more water out of towel. I told Mel I was going to go up and help Nina.
I was very worried about Nina. She is a new widow, in her 70’s and has a bad back. I knew that if our flat had that much water, hers was going to have much, much more. I rang her bell and she came to the door. I had a bucket and mop in hand and said, “Nina, I want to help you.” “No, no. I can do it myself.” “Nina, no – I want to help you!” And she opened the door and let me come in. Yes, part of my wanting to help was because I was concerned about the water still coming out of all the cracks in our flat, but I truly was, and still am, very concerned about her.
I started mopping the entry way and she asked me to do something and I understood it to be the toilet room because she couldn’t bend over to do it. Sure enough, there must have been three inches of water on the floor in there! Her kitchen, toilet room, entry, hall and part of the livingroom are flooded. She had water pouring out of the lamp in the ceiling and running down the wall in the livingroom. Water was pouring out of the ceiling in the kitchen and running down the wall and down across the window. She had to sit on a stool and bend over that way to mop water up. My heart just broke for her!
She told me the woman upstairs was asleep when the water pipe broke. Nina ran upstairs immediately when the water started pouring out of her toilet room ceiling and banged on the door. She banged and banged but no one answered. Well, I understand why no one answered. Fear! This is an older woman, living alone, and she was afraid to open the door. Nina ran downstairs and started calling her on the phone. Nina said she let the phone ring for five minutes – but in an adrenelin pumping moment like that, it could have been just a few rings that felt like five minutes.
Nina told me she didn’t know what to do – they needed a man to go down into the basement and turn the water off. I’m not sure who she got to turn it off. I realized then that there are very few men living in our podyezd. In fact, in the 5 flats that are stacked one on top of the other, Mel is the only man now that Nina’s husband is gone. And if he had been alive, he could have done nothing at all since he had been housebound for years with severe Parkinson’s Disease.
After we got most of her water mopped up, we both went upstairs to see if we could help the woman up there. She actually had very little damage. The water only went into her toilet room and some out into her hall. Almost all of it was in Nina’s flat, with most of the remainder in our flat. The flat below us has damage, too, but not as extensive because we were able to mop it up so quickly.
While helping Nina mop up water I understood why we had water in so many places, too. Her linoleum is many small pieces put together so the water seeped through all of the cracks. It will be weeks before that is all dry, unless she can lift it up some how. I don’t think she owns the flat, so I’m not sure how much will actually get done.
Oh Nina! I will go up tomorrow or Monday and see if there is anything else we can do to help her. I love this woman a lot. She has been a real friend to me while we have lived here. As I got ready to leave, she grabbed hold of me, kissed me soundly on the check and said thank you over and over again. Pray for Nina. Pray that God will open her heart to hear the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
So – we will begin the New Year with no water. We have no idea when we will have water again. Tomorrow is Sunday and everyone will be celebrating and getting drunk. I seriously doubt that ZhEK or any other repair person will be willing to come and fix the pipe. Monday is a holiday. Tuesday everyone will be recovering from their hangovers. The whole next week is a holiday week because the 6th of January if Christmas Eve. Nina was concerned about that, too – when will it be fixed?
Well, we know that this is in God’s hands. He has a purpose for it. I pray that it will eventually mean Nina’s salvation – one more thing that He uses to draw her to Himself. It is also a learning experience for us. Again.
I should have taken a shower earlier today when Mel did.
