Super Heroes - First on the scene

So what happens when your house is discovered submerged in water?  In our case, we were not on the ground to deal with the immediate aftermath, so that's where our super heroes came in.  Our neighbors on both side of our house called the fire department and a plumber who bravely began to pump out the water. They tracked down mutual friends who had my parent's contact information and called them. My dad called our insurance who gave two names of clean up crews that would be covered. My amazing mother took off work to come down from Chicago to start overseeing clean up. The volunteer fire fighters came, and along with our neighbors, lovingly and with care, packed up our belongings that could be salvaged and moved them to our neighbors homes.  They shut off the electricity since our electric panel in the basement was submerged, along with the rest of the mechanics of the house. Our neighbors allowed the crews to connect to their electricity to pump the water out. Neighbors opened their homes to the crews to use their restrooms and provide a place for people to rest.  Our neighbors cleaned out our fridge and freezer, saved important documents, and pulled out all of our daughters toys and books.

A beautiful story we must share.  One of the volunteer fire fighters arrived and saw the mezuzah on our door.  Being married to a Jewish woman, he realized he would probably find a Ketubah inside.  For many Jewish families, the Ketubah, or Jewish marriage contract, is a symbol of the beginning of their family and are often works of art at the center of the home.  Ours was made by two dear friends, framed and sat on our mantel in our living room.  He found it, and told our neighbors to keep it safe.  Luckily it was not harmed by the water.  He saw our family pictures and learned our names and realized that his sister in law in Florida is a colleague of Erez.  Among the explosion of messages we discovered that day, was a text from Erez's colleague in Florida letting us know that our Ketubah was safe and sound.

My mother, who is a true heroine of this story took charge.  She called one company insurance had given, but they could not make it out very quickly.  She also didn't have the best feeling from speaking with them on the phone.  So she called Servpro in Urbana.  The owner of the company came to the site himself with his second hand man to survey the damage and then jumped into action the next morning.  My mom's gut is always spot on, and she knew that Servpro was the way to go between the two options.  Never second guess my moms gut feelings.  They are never wrong.  As I've told many people, we hope you never need their services, but if you do, call Servpro first. (and no, I am not being paid to say this!)

My mom took meticulous notes, collected business cards from every person who stepped foot in the house and reported to us exactly what was happening as we made our way back to the states.  She pressed our insurance to get an emergency assessor out to the house to approve temporary housing for us that was not a hotel room.  The assessor drove 3 hours to get to our house and approve us for a rental apartment.

It's a small world and a small community, and seeing our neighbors and community members caring for our home with such love brought us to tears.  We have been told countless times that we have amazing neighbors, that the people working in our house worked like dogs to get it cleaned up. We have been humbled and honored to have had such amazing people around us through this time and we thank you all from the bottom of our heart.

There are additional superheros who have come to our rescue, and you will hear their stories!