The top photo is the currently flooding view down the wind tunnel - the one below is the landing pad from up in my kitchen window. We just passed 3 inches of rain. Since last night. So far so good but once the property next door is completely underwater, my basement may begin to fill. But NOT with rainwater, if you know what I mean. They're fixing the problem but I'm not sure how far they've gotten in the project so...we'll see. We're officially saturated now.
One note about flooding - here are my flood tools:
Tub trugs. The large ones. NOT the extra large ones because they're too heavy for one person to carry when they're full of wet stuff. Just the large. They are a lifesaver and will cut cleanup time by more than half. They're awesome.
German, rayon chamois. The TV version is call ShamWow but you can get unbranded ones. Be careful when you go to buying these. You want the 20 x 27 inch ones. Not "large" ones. The large ones are ripoffs.
Clay. Clay, clay, clay. I keep both wet and dry food-grade bentonite clay. And dry pure clay pond sealer. I keep wet clay in a half gallon mason jar with a plastic lid and dry clay in a 5 gallon glass apothecary jar. Pond sealer just in its bag, sealed in a large plastic garbage bad. To save you the bother of me preaching about clay, it has its very own blog post. Clay rocks! Get some, use some, eat some, send the mud some love.
Nu Stock - for various health matters. For you and pets. This is a 75% (by weight) sulfur cream. I use it straight on the dogs and mix it 1 part Nu Stock and 5 parts coconut oil for me. It will last you a very long time for scrapes, cuts, bug bites, rash, poison ivy, anything that might have or attract yuckies. Basically all of the things for which I would use clay but more easily carried and tossed around. Although, Redmond has wet clay in a tube which would not be a bad idea to keep in a bag or in your car or pocket if you're antiquing or rummaging, working out on the back forty or otherwise away from home with no idea what might come up.
MMS - chlorine dioxide. It is a sodium chlorite solution that usually comes in 4 oz bottles. If you're not familiar with it, then get the "set" that includes a 4 oz bottle of citric acid solution. You use it by drops, so it will last a long time. For my basement - which is already leaking so it's damp down there, now. I will put 30 drops of MMS and 30 drops of citric acid into a large, one piece, plastic watering can I got at Walmart years ago which is perfect. It has a big sprinkle head on it and holds about 2 gallons. So, 30 drops of MMS and 30 drops of citric acid solution, let it sit for about a minute (it will stink and smells like bleach or ozone. It's non toxic but it will displace oxygen so don't stick your face over it to smell it) after a minute, I will fill the can with water and sprinkle distribute it all over the basement floor. Soaking wet, running under partition walls, washer/dryer stands, everything. Then I'll close off the basement and let it do its thing for an hour or two. Then I'll do it all again. This is not handy, dandy stuff. You can't really stick it in your pocket and whip it out in an emergency. But for decontaminating stuff, it's AWESOME. mix 6 drops each of the MMS and citric acid solutions, let it activate (it turns brown and stinks like bleach or ozone) soak it up with a cotton ball, make room for it and hang it from the bar in your closet and close the door. Then go back an hour later or a day or a week later. It will freak you out a little bit. Make you wonder what that smell in your closet was, all those years. Smells you didn't even realize were there until you eliminated it.
MMS is being used in an effort to eradicate malaria so it is often sold by people from the church that is trying to do that which puts a limit on what they can charge you for it. So, it's cheap. Get some. Keep it in the fridge. You never know when you might need it. It's high-power stuff. It was used to clear the Hart Federal building of anthrax, it's still being used in the clearing of black mold in post Katrina New Orleans and currently being tested and used as a remedy for the toxic drywall that was coming out of China for God only knows how long. It's fast, effective, is spent in its activites and has a super short half life. It's almost perfect.
I already keep everything up off the floor due to the nature of the flooding I've experienced so the only stuff that will be under water is the stuff I can't get up off the floor. BUT, the chlorine dioxide will kill every bad thing in its path PLUS everything the "smell" (gas) comes in contact with at which point the whole mess will be sterile and a whole lot less icky to clean up. Plus, all mold spores will be dead which gives you plenty of time for the whole area to dry out before hidden spores can regroup and colonize and by then you're done cleaning and can move on to the next step.
I probably don't actually have any mold spores in my basement because I keep it sterile with chlorine dioxide (ClO2) AND ozone. And sometimes, grapefruit seed extract but I use that to brush or spray on things and then let them air dry because the half lifes of ozone and ClO2 are so short. The grapefruit seed extract will dry and just sit there, waiting for moisture at which point it will reactivate. So things are cleaned and kept clean.
Which brings us to the last tool which is an ozone generator. I have two. A super small "bare bones" unit from Forever Ozone and a Made in USA commercial unit that looks like a canister vacuum from...I'll have to see if I can find the name of the place 'cause I forget the name. I'll take a side by side picture of them so you can see the difference because the "bare bones" (that's what they call it because it is not encased with a fan) is AWESOME! WAY cheaper than the commercial unit and the plates are just plug and play. You can replace them yourself. Whereas the commercial generator has to be sent back to the factory where they replace the plates and inspect the fan and stuff but it's all self contained, comes in a carrier and can be hauled around from place to place. It is rated as generating more ozone but I don't know what it is but the "bare bones" is more than enough for my small house. I plug it into a timer. Open a window and set a fan blowing IN (to provide fresh air to be converted into ozone and to create pressure in the room so that the ozone can penetrate things like upholstery, mattress, framing inside the walls etc) and crack other windows a little bit and then another fan blowing over the little generator to circulate the ozone and I think it is every bit as good as the commercial unit. But that might just be my preference for its compactness, I don't know. It does the job and it's just so tiny! It's awesome. Mine is full blooded American. Currently, they get parts from China but they're still actually made and, in turn, inspected, in the USA.
Use a timer, that way you can just leave it to activate, shut-off and dissipate without having to breathe it. It's not poison but it does displace oxygen and will irritate the membranes in your air passages and eyes. So, you don't want to sit around in it. You can walk in and turn it on and shut it off if you don't have a timer but timers are about 8 bucks so just get one. You can set it up to generate for a few minutes every day while you're on vacation and come home to a perfectly fresh house.
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