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LOUISVILLE, KY (WAVE) - More than 80 people were evacuated from their homes early Sunday morning after a record rainfall brought flash flooding to Jefferson County, KY.
In addition, a swift water rescue team helped about 250 people get out of their homes and performed 12 actual rescues, according to Rick Harrison of the Buechel Fire Department.
[SLIDESHOW: October 6 flooding]
MetroSafe Spokesperson Jody Duncan said no one was injured, but emergency workers safely removed people from homes and stranded cars as waters rose waist-deep in some areas.A shelter was set up at Atherton High School. More than a dozen people took advantage of it. Other people sought at Greater Faith Missionary Church at 5217 Gathright Drive.
According to the National Weather Service, a record 5.91 inches of rain fell on Saturday, breaking the old record of 3.07 inches of rain set on October 5, 1910.
This also breaks the all-time record for the month of October. The previous record was 5.07 inches set in 2004. More rain fell off and on throughout the day on Sunday.
sourceLuckily it wasn’t that bad in my neighborhood. But every time I looked out the window, it was pouring rain—right.into.my.garage. It rained all day Saturday, and off & on Sunday.
Monday was the day to tackle the mess. I had already cleaned out some of this corner when I took a picture. This is the back left corner of my garage. I have overhead doors on the front and the back of my 1 car garage. Water has gotten into this area before, but never this bad.
In this collage you can see the progression of my work in that back left corner. It took me a couple of hours to get it all cleared out.
I decided to build this lumber storage bench from FamilyHandyman.com. You would think from my pictures that I would have enough to build this bench. But, NO—I had to make a run to The Home Depot for some 2x4’s.
I printed out the directions and got busy building. If you build this, I recommend that you build the smaller right hand side first. It’s difficult to get your drill in the narrow left hand side. So, I built the right side including the braces, and then added the small 12” board to the top and the left side.
I made three. The second and third went really quickly. (for the 8 ft. bench, you would need 4)
I ripped a piece of OSB plywood on my table saw to fit. This is actually from a 70’s waterbed. I rescued it when I cleaned out the basement a couple of years ago.
I only had some small pieces of pegboard in my stash. As of now, I only have one piece on. After building this from the pictures—I thought it was pretty vague on how to finish it off—I needed to move it by myself. It seemed to be a little wobbly so I added two fence boards to the back, one at the top, and one (you can see here) at the bottom. I was going to use a 2x4, but decided I liked that the fence boards aren’t as thick, and will allow it to sit closer to the wall.
What you can’t see in this picture is the rest of the garage (toward the front) is still a mess. I knew I couldn’t possibly get it all out and back in on Monday. I had to get under the bench in order to get it from the driveway into the garage. I have this large HUMP that is suppose to keep the water out. It generally does a good job, but not with the rain we had this past weekend. After raising the bench onto two of my little dollies, I was able to scoot it over the hump and through the narrow pathway.
Also in this picture, I had to take down a long white shelf to get the new bench to fit the length of the wall. Note the electrical outlet. Because I need access to it, I had to shorten the length of my bench from 8 ft to 6 ft.
This is just some of the lumber that I was able to put back in the garage for overnight. The pile of plywood in the back didn’t make it in the garage. I had to cover it with plastic. I ran out of time, daylight and steam!
I really lucked out with the shelf on top of the new bench. It was stored in the rafters of the garage and it was the perfect size! You can see I have a mess of power tool batteries.
I was able to get all of my new 1x’s and most of the trim put away on Monday. I moved the batteries over to their new home on the top shelf. If you look closely, you can see that I have raised the bench by placing 3 bricks under each support.
I have decided to not add a front to my bench. I need to be able to see and grab my pieces quickly and easily.
This was another thing that kept me busy Monday. For a long time, I had one garbage can for my ETSY sign scraps—but it was filling up too quickly, so I added another one. That was a mistake. lol I think you have to admit, I’m pretty talented in the “stacking” dept. C’mon, you know you have made a masterpiece like this at least once!
Both garbage cans are now empty! We had a really cool day, so I burnt it all in my fire pit.
Now that the garbage cans are out of the way, the back right corner is today’s task. I generally try to clean/tidy my garage every Spring and Fall. But due to my bum shoulder I haven’t cleaned it really well since the Fall of 2011. I did clean the front part of the garage in the late Spring, but it turned hot…
I want to hear how YOU deal with all the extra bits and pieces? How do you store them? I’m always utilizing small sized lumber, so I can’t justify getting rid of it. Speaking of that, how do YOU dispose of your unwanted scraps?
You can see the other lumber storage bench I made by clicking that link.
gail
Gail Wilson is the author and mastermind behind My Repurposed Life. She is obsessed with finding potential in unexpected places and believes that with a little hard work and imagination, any old thing can be made useful again, including herself!
Gail reinvented herself during a midlife crisis and has found purpose again. She hopes you will find new ideas for old things and pick up a few tools along the way.
KCinKC
Way after the fact... I noticed your firepit for burning scraps following your very productive flood clean up. Just curious if your fire pit is re-purposed. I'm looking for ideas on what to use to create a firepit and wondered if you had any suggestions.
gail@myrepurposedlife.com
No, my firepit is just a run of the mill purchased fire pit. I've seen some great ideas. One of my favorites was an old washing machine tub.
have fun, be safe!
gail
deanS
My condolences on your flooding, glad you made it okay(relatively speaking).
I'm glad to find another person making one of these benches. I'm in the process of building one(over-building perhaps) with a wheeled base. Hopefully with a instructable on it.
Meari
OMG! I do not envy you having to clean that up. Definitely talent to stack 2 trash cans like that! LOL
Pat
Ok... catching up here.
We dispose the same way...we have a fire ring we use out front. Usually, we have to wait on 2 things. December and a LIFTED burn ban. ha!
That rain is something else. Glad it didn't do too much damage for you. Great motivator though.
Patricia
Hollie @ I'm Busy Procrastinating
So sorry to hear about your flooded garage, especially since it was full of wood! We were at a marching band contest in Muncie on Saturday and the school bus ride home in the darkness, road construction and pouring rain was quite treacherous!
Stefanie Gott-Dinsmore
I'm glad no one was hurt! Sorry you have to deal with that mess, but you did make a cool bench! š
Stephanie@cre8tive
You really have A LOT of wood! Glad to see you editing some of the scraps š You worked really hard on that garage, love the bench, and glad you kept the front open so that you can see your stuff. I like how one of the readers keeps their pieces in size order, that makes a lot of sense. Good luck with the rest of the cleanup!
girlfromwva
sorry about the rain/flooding!! we were out in that rain off & on all day moving a friend of ours. so glad when we were done!
Valinda
Gail, you are so amazing! You don't just make lemonade, you make a seven course dinner. Sorry you had to deal with the flooding. Been there. Done that. Not fun.
chris from midwest cottage and finds
impressive as usual...so happy you did not have more damage to your home....the bench---AWESOME!!!!
Barry
I bought some fairly heavy duty metal shelving with 2' deep shelves from Sam's Club (screwed the vertical bracing to the studs to make sure it wouldn't fall over) which I use to store short pieces (end grain facing out). When stacked neatly, you can cram a lot of short pieces on those shelves and you know they're all 2' or less! For longer pieces, I bought heavy duty shelving standards, mounted them to studs along a wall and put heavy duty 12" shelving brackets at the desired heights. Made for a heck of a lumber rack - I put well over 100 board feet of 8/4 curly maple, up to 12' long. For sheet goods, I built a "shelf" under our basement stairs that is about 32" wide and 42" deep out of 2x4s and decking metal braces. For bigger sheet goods I just set them against a wall - wish I had a better solution, but everything takes up too much room!
lalainia
What about using one of the wall shelf to hold scrap bits of lumber? Stack them on end like books. That way you can easily see them and pull out the one you need without worrying about knocking over the whole stack.
Catherine
Oh maaan! What a job to deal with--I have my own to come after the crazy summer I had.
I like the workbench, but not that closed front either. Actually, I was thinking how it would be a good structure o hold all the tools we love so much! I guess I still prefer to use tall "cubbies" to upright and organize all my wood--it tends to keep things from bowing and it's not so hard to pull something "from the bottom."
Wish I could lend you a hand, I know it's such a long and grueling project--but it's looking really gOOd!
Catherine
Elizabeth Smith
I'm so sorry that your garage flooded! Your new bench looks fantastic, however, and very functional. I hope you will enjoy it...and that it stays dry for a long time to come!
Korrie@RedHenHome
I am so sorry about your flooding problems! What a mess. Love the new storage bench you made. I have admired that project myself. All my leftovers are just stacked in the garage with no rhyme or reason, plus I have a bucket for those scraps, too! It *does* make for a nice fire on occasion, much to my children's delight. š
Sharon @ Elizabeth & Co.
Wow, what a huge undertaking! But a garage clean out really makes me smile. I just work so much better in a clean and organized space. But it sure is hard to keep it that way! Love the new storage bench! We'll save scraps for a while and they often come in handy, but then it feels overwhelming and we clean it out. Since we have bulk trash pick-up, it goes to the curb.
Julie @ follow your heart woodworking
I hope you didn't have too much off your garage things ruined. I always keep too much scrap wood. You know that thought of "you just never know if you might need this piece?" Every so often (not often enough) I take pieces and say to myself "are you honestly ever going to use this?" and I throw out as much as I can bear. We have an outdoor wood stove that heats the house and shop and it's a great place to throw my scraps in. I do have some shelving like you have, and bins for the pieces I keep, but it's a never ending process of determining what to keep and what to burn.
Holly
WOW! You did a ton of work yesterday. I'm impressed. All of my lumber is stored by size. I have hanging wall storage for my long boards and large buckets for the small scraps and they are sorted based on size. Anything two inches or smaller goes in the burn pile. Anything longer than two feet goes back on the wall with the long boards. Spindles or headboard legs goes in a tall garbage can. Trim pieces in another container. Plywood stacked against another wall. Only good pieces go into the buckets. And with as much as I build I go through most of my scrap pieces pretty quickly. A couple of times a year I go through what is there and decide if it can stay or if it goes into the burn pile.
Jill
I'm really sorry to hear about all the flooding. I'm glad you and most of your stuff survived not too bad. On the bright side, it did force you to do some cleaning and make that awesome bench! It looks fantastic!
Terri
You have been a busy girl! Thankfully you were not flooded out completely!
Sue
Glad you didn't have more damage to your house/ garage and "stuff". That workbench looks great, but after a day of hauling and building your shoulder must be bad :(.
kirby carespodi
I organize my stuff by opening the door to the "junk room" (an unheated/cooled space between the living room and the shop), throwing whatever it is in there, then closing the door really quickly. If I don't see it, it doesn't exist.