March 16

Kathy and Ted were watching two of their grandchildren on a Saturday morning, when Kathy answered the phone at about 10AM. It was her neighbor, Darrin, asking if they, too had sewage coming into their basement. She said no, but in the time it took her to walk to the stairs, she started to hear it gushing out of the toilet. She immediately ran outside to yell at Ted, who was working in the yard. There was already about 2 inches of sewage in the entire basement. Ted frantically ran downstairs, trying to save anything he could from being soaked. He also jammed towels down the toilet to slow the flow that was coming from it. Kathy immediately called the city's disaster emergency line, where she was told that someone was being dispatched, and would be out soon.

After about 45 minutes, there was still no sign of anyone from the city, so Kathy called the emergency line again, and the woman on the other end told her that someone had been called, and he was on his way. In the meantime, three of their children had come to their house, and Riley, the only one living at home, and in the basement, was on his way home from work. The water started to gush out of the toilet again, pushing the towels up and out, and was quickly filling the basement with more water.
This time, it was Kati, one of their daughters, who took to calling the emergency line. It had now been over an hour since the original call. The dispatcher told her, "I'm sorry ma'am, it's not my problem. He's been dispatched, but he has to drive home, and then go get his truck, and come to you." Kati explained that she could see the man driving up and down the street, but there was only one person there, and this was definitely more than a one person job. The dispatcher told Kati to "flag down" the driver, and have him dispatch another person. Not exactly what you want to hear when you're basement is flooding with sewage and there is nothing you can do, but watch it happen. 

 The water finally started to slow, and then stop. Then started the process of cleanup. Ted had already called his insurance agent, who had returned his phone call and said that while looking over his policy, he noticed that there is nothing in it about sewage backup, meaning that the insurance will cover none of the expenses. The insurance did say that he was sending out an independent contractor to start with the clean-up. It then continued the waiting game, for this company to come. They did, and they immediately started vacuuming all the water out of the basement,  and removing all of the contents of the basement. They informed the family that anything that had come in contact with the water would have to be thrown away, including doors, floor boards, and two feet of sheet rock. The first step was to get everything out of the basement, and the things that they would be able to keep would have to go into storage for a little while. 

This was probably the hardest part of the whole process for the family, because they had to just sit and watch as their personal belongings were thrown into a dumpster. Riley was sent out to get new clothing, because he now had nothing but the clothes on his back. The Roos' were informed that they would need a new water heater, and that they couldn't use their furnace until it was inspected. Because of this, they decided they couldn't stay in their home. They then spent the next six days in a hotel, while Riley stayed with one of his siblings.

After the clean up had started, the different news channels had heard about the incident, and had started to appear around the neighborhood. Pictures were taken, interviews conducted, and Ted's face was plastered all over the media, including the national media. Kathy made a formal complaint to the city about their emergency dispatch, and later received a formal apology from the city. This is just the start of a very long path back to normal.