[pct-l] Cleaning down bags

[Lonetrail at aol.com (Lonetrail@aol.com)]

Wayne
 
Check your policy: You have structural and contents. Clothing is contents  it 
may be covered. Your dry wall, etc., is structural. If in doubt call your  
agents don't take no for an answer. Sometines they bend
 
Lonetrail

Seems  like we may have covered this recently, but I can't find it. My   
basement recently flooded and I had to spend the last week of   
valuable vacation time ripping out damaged sheet rock and carpet and   
mucking out muddy floors.  Time I really would rather have  spent  
hiking.  Anyway, I have two old, but still somewhat  useful down bags  
that got soaked in the incident.  I got them  dried out quickly, but  
they will need to be washed.  We have a  big front loading washer, so  
I think we can use that to wash  them.  Any soap recommendations?   
What's the best way to  dry them?

In exchange for your advice I'll give you mine about  floods:

1.  Get flood insurance.  Your standard insurance  policy will cover  
water damage caused because wind blew your roof  off or your pipes  
broke, but not due to a flood.  You have to  get government-sponsored  
flood insurance at additional cost.   Like most people in Portland,  
Oregon I reasoned that I live 150'  above the 500 year flood plain and  
won't be flooded.   Unfortunately, the water draining off the 400' of  
hill behind my  house had other ideas.

2.  Walk around your neighborhood and think  like water.  Where would  
you go if you got the upper hand?  Observe the storm sewers and  
ditches that protect your home.   Are they clear of debris?  Will they  
remain so if a deluge  flows down the hill?  If you get or expect a  
gully washer take  a rake or hoe and unplug those suckers.  You can't  
rely on the  government to do this stuff for you.  My local municipal   
government is so intent on assuring that I have the right to marry   
someone of my own gender, live in a nuclear free zone and eat  organic  
radishes that they have little time to clean out the  ditches.

3.  If your house floods anyway, DO NOT go wading around  in the water  
with the electrical power still on trying to save your  miserable  
personal possessions.  In the heat of the moment,  that is exactly  
what I did and I am lucky I didn't get terminally  zapped.

Wayne  Kraft
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