Outage, and thanks are due.

[Robert Lees]

19/9/13

I'd like to offer my thanks to Bob Ollerton and Ted for their serious hard work in getting a rather flooded server back up and running.


Colorado floodwater and electronics don't mix so well!

[mike lutz]

Re: Outage, and thanks are due.

I,m with you Mr. Lees.Thank you Bob and Ted.I hope you both fared well thru this flooding ordeal.

[tcraft]

Re: Outage, and thanks are due.

It happened Thursday am, the local river changed its course and came down the street - ted lost his house, and two cars. He and his wife lara and 2 children are staying with family in the area as they work out insurance and FEMA details.

Thanks to the dozen or so that contributed money this past spring, we had purchased a subscription to a off site data backup service and were able to restore to an alternative virtual server today. Hopefully we lost very little between the last backup and the server going underwater...

[robbie]

Re: Outage, and thanks are due.

Ok guys and gals I think we need to make sure they have the resources that they need to keep the board up. What do we need?

[Ryan]

Re: Outage, and thanks are due.

Thanks to all involved for their hard work

[Ron Coleman]

Re: Outage, and thanks are due.

When you get settled and have matters in hand, tell us and we will send you some good will like we did a short while ago.
Really sorry about your flood damage.

Ron Coleman
N96995

[barnstmr]

Re: Outage, and thanks are due.

KUDOS for the hard work... certainly we love this forum. But more importantly, glad to know that the folks involved are safe and sound. Thank you all for getting us up and running again amidst the awful tragedy you must all be facing. Personally, I would have been content to wait much longer if necessary as this site (as good and nice as it is to have) surely isn't the highest priority. Bob and Ted.. thanks and keep up the great work. Let us know how and where to send funds to help defray your unexpected costs.

[Carrieve]

Re: Outage, and thanks are due.

Please let us know where to send donations. I am in.

[ted]

Re: Outage, and thanks are due.

I figured this was a good opportunity to get my own account on here after so many years of Bob speaking on my behalf.

Thanks for the kind words and offers for help. I've already had an amazing outpouring of help from friends and family for the disaster. What started out as a horribly devastating event has lessened into just a moderately devastating event. Thanks to all for the help.

We were able to move out of the premise only 3 days after the national guard finally let us in. (that includes moving out all the items that could be salvaged and cleaning the rest of the house of both my ruined items and all the drywall that was soaked with flood water). We are housed with relatives and working on new housing. We're applying for the FEMA help and that looks maybe hopeful; this is our first time using it and it's hard to tell what kind of help and when we'll see it.

But I thought I'd offer up some of my video from the event that I took. With only 15 minutes warning, my wife and I were stranded between two rivers for about 10 hours on the day it struck. (Kids were with family in another town, thankfully.)

I live(d) north of a public park with four man made ponds with the St Vrain river flowing between them. This is a video from about 11am September 12th, where I walked between upper middle pond and the east most pond: https://www.sugarsync.com/pf/D6962360_2_7173461483 At the very end you can see the St Vrain river raging about 10(?) feet above normal level... that river will later flood my neighborhood. At this point we believed we had 5-10 hours before it would cause problems.

The problem with that original estimate is that we thought the river and ponds to the south of us would overflow and creep into our neighborhood. But the surprise was that further north where the river met a bridge with the railroad tracks, that the river diverted course and followed the tracks. The tracks were elevated and that blocked the flowing water from returning to the original river banks. The water flowed south till it came to a golf course north of us. It filled up the entire golf course and then overflowed directly north of the neighborhood. Specifically, directly north of my house. The river over flowed and hit the street'ss eastern side houses and split in two, creating a river to the east and west of the my side of the roads houses. North was blocked by the golf course. And south was the previously mentioned ponds and river.

Here you can (sort of) see the golf course full of water and spilling over the east/west road and hitting my north/south street and becoming a new river: https://www.sugarsync.com/pf/D6962360_2_7174002224 The red SUV in the beginning was my wife's vehicle. We tried to escape the flood after we spent 15 minutes grabbing as many things we cared about in our house and putting them on the top floor. Unfortunately we failed, losing both cars and stranding outselved on the street.

Skipping a bunch of events and 5 hours, we had been stranded in a house for a while and darkness was setting in. We had no power so I figured this would be the last chance I'd get to see my old house. So I hugged the high points in the neighborhood and went to see my place. I didn't realize I did it at the time, but you can hear a hugh sigh as I round the corner and see how close the water is to my front door. https://www.sugarsync.com/pf/D6962360_2_7174000176

After grabbing a few emergency possessions in the house, I left. I took video on the way back to the house (on higher ground) that we were stranded in for the night. There are pauses in the video while I look for a safe(r) place to go and shoot more video. https://www.sugarsync.com/pf/D6962360_66120318_8772840

Jumping ahead many hours, we were rescued by these enormous rescue vehicles that could cross the flood rivers that the boats could not. We climbed in the vehicle and were driven just two blocks away to where the waters had not hit so hard. I took this one last video of the river running through the golf course before loading onto a school bus and being taken to the evac center https://www.sugarsync.com/pf/D6962360_2_7174000778

The rest of the story involves clean up of the house. I have a few pictures from that but they're not as exciting as the actual flood.

So it's been almost 10 days now and we are finally in a stable spot. Server is (obviously) running and we have a place to live out of until we locate a new house to call home.

We've been in a lot of contact with FEMA and related groups. Insurance has declared our cars as totalled but has not told us yet how much we will get for them. No doubt it won't be enough to replace both of them.

All in all, we were fortunate. We lost many possessions but not all of them. And we all survived the waters.

I feel a little silly apologizing for it, but I'm sorry about the extended downtime due to the flood. I had you guys back up and working as soon as it was reasonably possible. The nice folks at indra.com have given the server a temporary home until I can host it again in my future house.

If you are interested in assisting my recovery, I can offer my paypal account of [email protected]. Or you can send something akin to a target gift card (for replacing lost household items) to 535 5th Street, Berthoud Colorado 80513. Please, don't feel obligated. I run the server as a hobby for myself and many others like Bob. I enjoy what I learn from my experiences here and enjoy helping others. I've been hosting sites for Bob and Forrest (and others) for a long while and will continue doing for the foreseeable future. ..... As long as they don't get tired of my rotten luck.

Thanks

Ted

[TimHicks]

Re: Outage, and thanks are due.

Wow that's incedible. Thanks so much for all that you have done for us, Ted. I haven't seen your videos yet. But I hope to look at them soon.
Good luck with your recovery. Keep us posted.

[jstall]

Re: Outage, and thanks are due.

I also would like to thank all that helped and were involved with this endeavour, the forum is a wonderful tool, and when it is gone, then you really respect those that make it happen, thanks again

JS
Alva, OK

[David Price]

Re: Outage, and thanks are due.

Ted,
Thank you for all you devotion to the site and the tribe.
Wishing all a quick recovery.............Gratitude

[Pearson]

Re: Outage, and thanks are due.

Bob, You should have gotten my check a couple of weeks ago. I am sorry it couldn't be for more, but I have been unemployed for several YEARS now. Thank you to all who keep this site going. THANK YOU!

[Ron Coleman]

Re: Outage, and thanks are due.

Hi Ted...
How about a last name for the postal person...Maybe PM it?
thanks
RonC

[tcraft]

Re: Outage, and thanks are due.

got it Richard, thanks! I'll set it into the VB software kitty.

bob.