The Flood of Ought-Five

On Tuesday, the department store where I work flooded.  For a few (two?  three?) days, we had been without water of any kind, so this was kind of a cruel joke.  I gather that a construction crew who's building onto the mall screwed up the water, and when they finally got service re-established, the ensuing pressure blew the fuck out of the main inside the building, so we had a deluge gobbing out of an equipment closet in the back, with the resultant flow putting the offices, bathrooms, hallways, fitting rooms, and parts of the men's and girl's sections under ankle-deep water.  Just about everyone pitched in, bringing out 30 lb. sandbags and blankets (and newspaper, which instantly added to the mess), and trying, once the flow had stopped, to clean up what was there.  You really haven't lived until you've squeegeeed water off of a carpeted floor at midday in wet sneakers.  We formed a bucket brigade until the professional water removal people arrived, and then we just moved a bunch of furniture and roped off some of the store with police tape.  Somewhere in between heavy lifting and dealing with a river in the store, my role as visual manager (the guy in charge of the camera) called for me to take pictures for insurance purposes, and so I may just post them here at some point in the future.  I'm of two minds about the flood, now that it's over - boy, what a pain in the ass that was, but it sure did liven up an otherwise irritatingly dull Tuesday something fierce.