I left the school from teaching on Tuesday night at 10pm. The school was clean and usable like normal. However, I received a call the following day at 2pm from one of my school’s staff and the school was neither clean nor usable. Overnight at some time the sewer system backed up through the toilet in the lobby of the school. During the day there was so much water that there was standing water in the lobby and enough water present that it was flowing out of the front door. Our neighbors in the suite next to ours also had some seepage through the walls and notified our landlord. Since they were unaware of the root cause they had the city shut off our water. Once we got into the school the damage was already quite extensive. All of the lobby was covered in water, urine, and excrement. All of the carpets in our kitchen and offices were completely soaked and half of the training area was also damaged from the water.
We were lucky that no major damage except for the carpets and walls occurred. All of our weapons, lion dance equipment, an other important items were out of the way of the damage. We contacted the city sewer department and they came out to check their lines on Wednesday evening. They did not find any blockages in their lines.
The next day I contacted our landlord. They responded immediately and met me at the school to inspect the damage. After we reviewed the extent of the damage the arranged for a plumber to come and auger the lines to ensure they were clear and had an emergency water extraction team ( a fancy term for carpet cleaners) to come out and begin cleaning up the mess. I had to leave work early twice to meet people for cleaning but it is worth it to have the cleanup measures started.
With as much mess as this made, we unfortunately have to close the school down until the school is clean and sanitary again. Hopefully school will be dry by Monday so that the cleaning can begin. With any luck we will be able to reopen the school by mid week. Apex Training Center has graciously offered for us to use some of their space to continue holding classes while our school is out of commission. I’m thankful for their help and for the help and response of our landlord to get this issue resolved as quickly as possible. It is frustrating when things like this happen.
