Wednesday, August 08, 2007

The Floods Are Coming

Right now, my building is flooded. The waters are rising and we're all in trouble. I'm really not sure how it happened, I think it was a combination of the rain and something breaking. This is not just a leak, it's pretty much a full fledged flood.
When you walk into the elevator bank you can hear running water. It sounds like one of those wasteful water treatments at a high end spa. You can also hear it in the ceilings in certain places. At one desk it sounds like one of those noise machines, set to "gentle rain."
I've gone to the bathroom to piss four times already this morning.
One of the elevators actually has a sheet of water spilling down into the doorway when the door opens, it's like you're walking through a waterfall.
On the 10th floor (where the cafeteria is), there is an inch of standing water, when I stepped out of the elevator I almost slipped and broke my ass.
When I got up there three maintenance guys were running around sloshing through the puddles and yelling frantically into their walkie-talkies. "There's water on 7 and 8 too? I'm on 10 and it's completely flooded."
The freight elevator is flooded, water is pouring out of the ceiling, and it has crept about two feet into the hallway.
Elevators are shut down so I will have to use the stairs, thankfully I'm only on the fourth floor.

Update: My egress from the building was just as exciting. I was directed to the 5th floor so the security guards could send me to the proper staircase to use to exit the building. The staircase they chose was incredibly hot and muggy and it smelled like and old gym locker. There was water on each and every step and halfway down I encountered the man charged with making this stairwell safe for everyone who wanted to leave the building. He was about 70 years old, he had a mop and bucket and he was sweating profusely and mopping his brow with a hankerchief. The staircase was so hot and humid that by the time I got outside into the regular New York City summer heat and humidity it felt like I had just walked into air conditioning.

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