flooding? only in our kitchen

There was severe rain for most of yesterday and all through the night last night. It finally let up about lunchtime today, but not before wreaking havoc on roadways and at the airport. Our friend John who lives closer to downtown took this photo of one of the major north/south roadways.



Matt had to re-route and take a different road to campus after discovering his typical route was under 3 feet of water. This afternoon he went back to campus and the road was still blocked... and crowded with fisherman holding nets - they were catching fish that had escaped from fish farms the night before. One man encouraged Matt to join in the fun and take his fish home to his wife for dinner (the head and the tail make a great soup, he said).

But, I set the weekly menus around here, and fish head/tail soup was not on it tonight. We had pancakes, my favorite "night before we leave on a big trip" meal - it's easy to make with stuff on hand and leaves no leftovers - perfect!

Unfortunately, the airport was also closed for most of the day, part of the runway and departure hall flooded. A few smaller aircraft took off, but not large planes (that need more runway space). So, hoping that it all drains off tonight and we still get on our plane tomorrow.

In other news re: water and flooding - the pipes in our kitchen are still leaking (but I can shut of the main hot water valve and prevent flooding!) The good news from the company that originally installed the piping is that they have determined they aren't responsible :) The details on how they arrived at this conclusion are a little fuzzy, but one thing is clear: they are not coming to fix it.

So, earlier today I ventured out in the downpour to the apartment management office and told them my situation. They sent a fix-it man who took one look at the leak, assured me it was a big, messy, very involved repair job and declared the responsibility most definitely, without a doubt, belonged to the company that originally installed the piping.

That's when I decided to bow out of the debate and called our landlord (who, by the way, is a GREAT landlord). So, the ball is now being passed around between three parties: landlord, installation company, and apartment complex management. One thing is clear: it isn't going to get fixed before we leave tomorrow afternoon. But, Xiao Li will hopefully be able to let them into the apartment to get the repair work done while we are gone.

That's all the water-related news from around here!