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midwestwine

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Friday night we headed out of town to our lake house for the weekend. Saturday morning I get a call from my neighbors. Saying that a water main broke in our neighborhood and flooded the sewer main. Every house on our block got flooded with sewage. They said they broke in my house and saved my cats from the basement. So I hoped in my truck and raced home to find 2 feet of sewage in my basement :( over the top of everyone of my carboys.4 six gallon, 2 five gallon and 2 three gallon carboys all full of wine aging. plus all three of my primary's. Made me want to cry some of that wine has been aging almost a year!
 
unbelievable! what are the odds

insurance would cover that but at what price after all that work,
 
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Well on the bright side now I can remodel the basement and build a wine making room and wine seller!!
 
Wow Matt,

That really stinks, oh sorry. I am glad to see you are not letting this stop you. Good luck with the remodeling and post some pics when it is done.
 
Yep, that kind of news and sight when you get home would be really bad. So sorry for the catastrophe in your home and neighborhood. Keep us posted.
As stated by me before, I'm envious of you guys/gals with basements, but there is a negative side to everything. Keep the head up!
 
Winemaking Catastrophe

I've now read of two winemaking catastrophies in one week! Yikes!!!

I hate to hear about this second disaster. I have a basement, but live on the side of a hill. I'd need an ark if mine flooded like that here.

I'm interested to see how insurance will cover this one. Will they just cover the kits and equipment, or will the cover the estimated value of the wine?

I'm happy to see you have a good attitude and are looking forward to your new winemaking room. I look forward to seeing pics of the new place.

Paul
 
I hope all these problems STOP before any more of us have it happen to them.
 
That sucks big time. So sorry for the loss.....

That might just top Sarah's broken table for worst disaster in a winery. How could you ever use one of those carboys again and feel "safe" even with a good cleaning/sanitizing..... :(
 
Matt sorry to hear of your loss. It's tough to lose all that wine but clean up is easy as all you have to do is dump it and clean/sanitize everything real good. What about your appliances like the furnace, washer & dryer, etc. Those are not so easy to clean and replace. Did you have furniture or carpeting in the basement? Were your walls finished with paneling or drywall? I feel sad for your loss but I have a feeling it may be even worse then your letting on. Good Luck and keep us posted.
 
I feel your pain. Lots of work down the drain. Hope your home will be OK.
 
Runningwolf said:
Matt sorry to hear of your loss. It's tough to lose all that wine but clean up is easy as all you have to do is dump it and clean/sanitize everything real good. What about your appliances like the furnace, washer & dryer, etc. Those are not so easy to clean and replace. Did you have furniture or carpeting in the basement? Were your walls finished with paneling or drywall? I feel sad for your loss but I have a feeling it may be even worse then your letting on. Good Luck and keep us posted.
Click to expand...

The basement was completely finished the city sent a crew out to clean it out. Their saying it may be about $25,000 to just reconstruct it. We had about $15,000 of contents it. So we will see how much they cover. But I'm still more pissed about my wine.
 
Matt that is a damn shame. I hope you have plenty of help. I wish I was close by to give you a hand. Do you have a drain in the floor so you can hose everything down?
 
Runningwolf said:
Matt that is a damn shame. I hope you have plenty of help. I wish I was close by to give you a hand. Do you have a drain in the floor so you can hose everything down?
Click to expand...

We do have a floor drain but their is a chance it could flood again. The city can not fix the sewer main yet because a big church is 10 feet off the main. the church lost its foundation and is caving in. They have to shore up the church before they can dig. Right now they have an emergency pump they took off the Missouri river dike. pumping from a man hole with a 1000 foot of 8" hose to another man hole past the problem. They took most of the hoses from the other pumps along the river. The even worse problem is with the Missouri flooding all the storm sewer are all close at the river. If we get a heavy rain they wont be able to pump the water over the dikes. Could turn into a big mess for many people.
 
What a shame. I have my hobby in the basement too; reminds me of the risks out there that we normally don't ever think about. I do have a sump pump in the wine room, I wonder if it would pump out as fast as water would flow in.

You have me thinking that I should switch my carboy covers to something different.

carboy.jpg
 
Runningwolf said:
Matt you can get a test plug at the plumbing store that will block off your drain, preventing water from coming back into it again.
Click to expand...

I had a plumber come in today to rip up my floor where the main comes into the house and put a back flow valve in. It will open and close the main when needed.
 
Minnesotamaker said:
What a shame. I have my hobby in the basement too; reminds me of the risks out there that we normally don't ever think about. I do have a sump pump in the wine room, I wonder if it would pump out as fast as water would flow in.

You have me thinking that I should switch my carboy covers to something different.

My sump pump and 3 of my neighbors sump pumps could not keep up. 2 of my neighbors were able to keep up with their sump pumps.
Click to expand...
 

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