Midwest Flooding

Ok, I'm back. I haven't updated because my apartment had water damage from the storms earlier in the month.

6/4/2008, my apartment received water damage from the rainstorm. I arrived home around 7pm to find my carpet soaked and a small lake in the middle of my living room. I had spent 2 hours getting home for all the intersections towards my building were flooded, especially downtown. I called my landlady to let her know the extent of the damage. The tenant next door in apartment 3 offered to lend me a wet-dry vaccuum. I took several hardcover books to him for safe-keeping while I dealt with my carpet. I called my bosses between 8:15 and 8:30pm to let them know I would not be in to work the following day. I started packing up all of my things, putting clothes and shoes in garbage bags and putting them in my bathtub, for my town was expected to receive more rain over the next few days. I also took photos of the carpet: in the living room and back into the bedroom. I discovered that my backback, also on the carpet, was soaked, as was everything inside; including class notes and papers from last year which will be painstaking to replace. I started to vacuum the carpet and worked on it for an hour or so, alternating between vaccuuming and packing clothes. I then called a friend, K, to see if I could stay overnight at their apartment.

The next morning, 6/5, I arrived at my apartment to find it more of a mess then the night before. Things looked worse in the 9am morning sunlight. I started to vaccuum the carpet again and then a couple showed up with their wet-dry vac. My landlady had arranged for them to come to my apartment to vaccuum up the water. About 10-15 gallons of water were taken up from my carpet. Since it was a sunny day, I hung out outside and opened the papers and folders from my backpack, as well as course books and dictionaries, moving them as the sun moved higher then lower, throughout the day. By the end of the day the papers had started to dry, but most were still damp, unfortunately. Since the sun was already down, my apartment had started to smell, and the carpets still damp, I called K again to see if I could stay over. They agreed.

The next morning, 6/6, I walked to work, but not before stopping by my apartment to check on things. I also packed up all the dry food into bags as well as milk and steak I had in the freezer. Im case the rains flooded my apartment, I wanted things out so I could eat them later on. I grabbed some leftover matzah and munched on that during my walk to work. Over lunch I went home to grab a few more. Friday afternoon my apartment still smelled and had wet carpet, so I asked a co-worker if I could stay with him and his family overnight. I called Rabbi X to see if I could stay with her overnight, and she graciously offered to let me stay until the 10th, and her son later offered to drive me to school the following morning so I could catch the shuttle from campus to the airport an hour away.

Before I left school though, a lot of people--from Rabbi X to co-workers-- have been telling me I should not be obligated to pay rent for June. Someone at work who is also a landlord told me I'm obligated to pay since June 1st came before the storm. Like everyone I have bills to pay, but since I haven't been in my apartment since the 3rd, I don't see why I have to pay. The carpet is damp, it smells, and I haven't lived there for a week. I asked my landlady if I could pro-rate the rent from June1-3, and then 23-30, but she said no. I asked her what I'm supposed to do and she said I "could stay with a friend." Of the people I know in town, how many are actually around and how many I would feel comfortable asking if I could stay with them are two different stories.

Rabbi X and family members said I should look into going to the Legal Clinic on campus, or the Law School. I live down the block from Student Legal Services, but they close at 4.30. I'll have to go there the afternoon of the 24th after I get back. As much as I don't want to pay rent I don't want to sue my landlady, either.