It Doesn't Just Happen to Other People, My First Experience With a Sewage Backup

7/22/2022 (Permalink)

Well, it happened No one wants to ever think it will happen to them but it happened. We had such a torrential downpour of rain on Monday, that the roads got flooded, the pipes got backed up and I had a sewage backup in my apartment. 

UGH! I speak to people all week long who have sewage backups. I sympathetically setup an appointment for our estimator to come out and then after they receive the estimate, set them up for service. I process their paperwork and before I know it, it’s the next day.  

This time it was me. This doesn’t happen to me. It happens to the people who call SERVPRO of White Plains. Right? Wrong! We were getting water here at work in our own parking lot and getting calls from people who had flooded basements and sewage backups. Through all of the business here, I missed the text from my neighbor telling me about the backup, and water that came into my apartment. When I left work that evening, all the parkways that I take to get home were closed.  

I carefully drove through neighboring towns and could not believe how many roads were flooded! I called my neighbor who’s dog I was walking and told her she would have to walk him because I was sitting in traffic and would be late. Her reply made my head spin. You have water, and a sewage backup. I literally felt like I could pull my car over get out and run home faster than I could get through the traffic.  

I work for SERVPRO of White Plains. I knew what the procedure was. I knew what should be done. I knew what to expect! Or did I? I thought I did until I walked in and saw my apartment a complete wreck! My neighbors were sweeping water and muck out into the hallway, which itself was a mess and flooded. My apartment was no different. What a disaster! 

 I have seen what our crews do, I have spoken to customers who have been through it, I have read the compliments we get on our Certificate of Completion form.  

I knew right away I needed to call in my coworkers. Luckily, they were able to get to me in a short time and extracted the water and mess. They washed the floors, sprayed anti-microbial throughout my entire apartment and setup drying equipment and a dehumidifier. They patiently waited for me to take pictures of everything that was ruined and bagged it up and threw it out.  As they went to leave another neighbor had just gotten home from work and found her own mess. She asked for the guys to please take care of her apartment and they immediately began to remediate her apartment. It was getting close to 9:00 PM when another neighbor came by and asked them to do his apartment. He had been waiting for hours for another company to show up and just couldn’t pass up the chance to have SERVPRO of White Plains take care of the mess.  

Next day I saw my neighbors and they both raved about how great the technicians were. They both said they were so nice, showed them so much empathy and went above and beyond what they expected to make them feel comfortable sleeping in their own apartments that night. I know the techs were exhausted, but they always showed the utmost professionalism and their experience in handling situations like this was a credit to them. Thanks to SERVPRO of White Plains for making it like it never ev