You Tell Us: How Did Your Neighbors Help Each Other During Hurricane Irene?

In the past 48 hours, neighbors have stepped out of their homes to help clear debris, cook out together, and share coffee and stories during Hurricane Irene and the aftermath.

In Catonsville, many residents banded together to help one another. Here's a story from Julie Soss, who lives on Glenwood Avenue in Catonsville.

Have a story that you'd like to share? E-mail editor Penny Riordan at penny.riordan@patch.com and it will be added to this story.

Our basement flooded. I had cleaned the drain, checked the sump pump hole, and made sure the battery backup was fully charged earlier in the day to be prepared. No water was in the sump hole. About 10:30 -11 at night went down to check on it and noticed water on the floor. The sump pump breaker kept tripping, and as I was trying to reset it, we lost power. The battery backup failed, so I tried to hot wire it directly. Noticed the fuse was bad, so scrambled out to the cars to see if I could pull one, or find one somewhere in the basement. Found one as the water rose to ankle deep, plugged it in, and tried the back up again. No good. So like Mickey Mouse in "Fantasia," we emptied bucket after bucket until we noticed the water rising. We finally gave up and just watched the water and our nausea rise. At about 3:30 we heard a beeping coming from the basement, I believe it was our new furnace that was installed in May trying to tell us there was high water (um, thanks...). Went back down to try to salvage some more items, since the water was now calf high and things that we placed at a higher level were tipping over or floating.

It then dawned on me to get on a list for flood damage repair. I called a bunch of numbers, and one company said they could be there within 1-1/2 hours. I thought it must be a joke, but they came about 2-1/2 hours later and started pumping. Three hours and some 14,000 gallons later (10"-12"), there was a visible floor again.

As we walked around the yard looking for other damage, our neighbor from across the street came over to exchange hurricane stories. When he heard what had happened, he came over to help. Turns out he was a plumber, so he was curious to investigate the failed sump pumps. Found out that the main one had shorted out, and the backup had burned itself out (prior to the hurricane). He offered to install a new one if I could find one, and run power from his neighbor who had power to help us drain the remaining water. As I scrambled from Home Depot, to Lowe's, to Sears, and finally to Ace Hardware, it dawned on me that I didn't even know his name, but that we were blessed to have such good neighbors. I finally found a place that had a sump pump left, and rushed home. He installed it for us, rigged the power cord across the street, and like magic, the pump started sucking the remaining water. He told us that he would come back in a few hours after we cleaned up a bit to check on us and to give us some more power (he was using his neighbor's power for his fridge, but told us he would "juice us" every hour to clear the sump hole since water was still draining in).

As we hauled up bits of our life to dry on the patio and yard to see what we could salvage or trash, some of our other neighbors came over to see what was going on. When they heard our story and saw the damage, they rolled up their sleeves to help. We turned the garage into a holding area for the larger items that we could save, and turned the backyard into a drying area. Seeing everything spread out on the lawn, patio, and in the garage makes you realize how much junk you can amass over time. It also makes you realize what is most important to you: your life, your family, your health, and maybe a FEW material objects (which should not be stored in a basement ... lesson learned!).

As we ripped up carpet and bagged waterlogged items, it made me thankful that we have such good neighbors. We have lived in a few different cities in Maryland, and I grew up in the Midwest, but none of our neighbors have even come close to the genuine, caring and giving neighbors in Catonsville. Without their help, we would still be dragging up things from our basement. Even though the hurricane ripped apart our basement, it brought us closer together with neighbors we knew, and ones we didn't. Thank you, Hurricane Irene, for making us realize how lucky we all are to be alive, well, and to have wonderful neighbors. Hopefully one day we will be able to return the favor, maybe just not right after another hurricane!

-Julie Soss