Flooded

Late yesterday evening, while watching TV and just at that moment when we contemplating going to bed, there was a strange loud bang from somewhere. Nathan and I looked at each other, and while we texted Linnea if she was doing something upstairs, she texted us the same. Strange.

Then we could hear - the rain?? Or..?
Nathan went to have a look in the hallway, and discovered a flood of water coming through from under our front door. We could hear it GUSHING just outside, and all of a sudden we had to leap to action as the water kept coming in at a raging speed!

It turned out there was a major water pipe that had burst, right outside our door, and the - warm - water was quickly filling up the corridor, seeping into every apartment. There was an alarm blaring and people shouting, neighbours making sure everyone was ok. This photo below is after it had all stopped, but as the water was warm, it was completely steaming.

We used every available towel in the house to create mounds to stop the water from going further into the apartment than the hallway, as there are no thresholds on the whole floor apart from into the bathrooms (where we would have actually liked the water to go, as they have drains!). At the same time as we were struggling to stop the water, we also had to start swabbing it up, as there was just SO much water. Even though we have an industrial Kärcher, the best method turned out to be a scraper and a shovel.

Finally the maintenance crew managed to turn off the flood and we could start the major clean up. Even though it was not exactly what we wanted to do on a Sunday night, we were so relieved we were actually home. If we wouldn't have been here, the whole downstairs would've been destroyed by the water as it would have entered all over. Phew.

Not only did I have to wash all the towels in the house the next day, but there was window cleaning scheduled, so I couldn't dry them on the balcony. Fun, fun, fun. Ah well, it could've been worse.