The Middletown Press (Middletown, CT)
‘It was a river gushing in’
Neighbors help Madison woman deal with Ida’s aftermath
MADISON — Marianne McGee’s home is welcoming.
The cozy family room, with a brown leather sectional sofa, has a corner spot reserved for McGee to work on her computer. The two dogs are playfully running around. The fan overhead is whirling and it’s a quiet Friday afternoon.
Open the door to the lower level and it is a completely different story — the smell is overwhelming.
“It’s because it is brackish water,” explained McGee. “So, it comes in from the marsh. The river (Hammonasset River) flows into this marsh. It’s not fresh rain water, unfortunately.”
Two days after Storm Ida hit the shoreline on Sept. 1, dumping some 5 inches of rain in Madison, McGee was looking at a major flood in her home.
“It’s like. what’s the next step?” she said, holding back tears. “I need to have a furnace. I need hot water.”
And to top it off, McGee is also struggling with health issues. She goes for regularly scheduled dialysis treatments three times a week. She spent a year in the hospital, coming home this past May. She is in need of a double transplant involving her liver and
kidney.
Before Ida arrived, she was “finally just happy” to get her life back in order.
Fortunately, upon hearing about McGee’s predicament, Casey Busby Davern immediately posted on social media, talked to friends and spread the work about a neighbor in need of assistance.
Money has been donated from local individuals and organizations. Madison Youth & Family Services has offered their services.
Andrew Steinhandler, a Madison Jaycees board member arrived at the McGee home on Saturday, Sept. 4, unannounced, with a $10,000 check to offset miscellaneous expenses.
“It feels great,” said Steinhandler. “I’ve never handed someone $10,000 before, so it definitely was a surreal experience. I’m just happy that she’s going to be able to at least have this money to hopefully stay in her place and move on.”
For McGee it was a moment of “shock and lots of happy tears.”
Steinhandler explained that this what the Madison Jaycees is all about — sponsoring events such as the Madison Triathlon, Summer Breeze and Madison Turkey Trot to raise money to support families such as the McGees.
“It’s amazing,” Davern said. “It’s just so nice to see that there’s somebody in need and nobody thinks twice about helping.”
McGee has a big job in front of her to get her house back in order.
A couch, chair, coffee table, piano and bed sit in brown standing water and a trowel, wastebasket, noise reducing headphones, bureau drawers and cooler float around freely.
It is enough to bring McGee to tears.
“See where that bureau is pulled out, the water line is right on the wall next to it, that’s why that drawer — that was starting to float out, too,” she said.
“The drawers underneath the bed actually floated up from where they were,” she added.
The downstairs area is devoted to McGee’s 20-year-old son, Blake. He has his bedroom, study area complete with computer, a separate area to watch television and hang out with friends. There is also a storage area and the laundry room.
The family has lived in a neighborhood across from Hammonasset State Park since 1999. They have endured three other flooding situations, but none as massive as the one left behind by Storm Ida.
She is well aware that others in her cul-de-sac have also flooded.
“We did flood, but it seeped in, slowly,” she said, recalling the past water damage. “We did get maybe 8 inches, but never the 2 feet (that’s there now).”
Ever since the town fixed the culvert in 2014, she said, “It’s been seven years, we have not flooded.”
They have taken precautions over the years.
“We built up a step in the garage, so if the garage got water, which is has a few times, it never made it into the house,” McGee said. “It’s been successful, but not this time.”
There is also a sump pump directly outside the garage that clogged up.
“Now the pump turns on, but the catch basin is full now,” she said.
The water rushed in through the garage door fast and furiously.
“It was 1:30 in the morning and my son woke me up and said, ‘Mom, get up now. We’re starting to flood,’” she recalled.
Remembering last floods, McGee wasn’t terribly concerned.
Yet, this was a flood unlike any other.
“It gushed in,” she said. “When I got downstairs, the carpet was still dry. I walked around the corner and saw the door to the garage and there was a river gushing in. I’ve never seen anything like it.”
McGee’s first reaction was to try and pick items up from the floor as fast as she could.
“I started lifting towels,” she said. “I had towels on the floor that were ready to go in the wash. I started lifting them up and then I looked around and I lifted up my son’s laundry bag. I just didn’t know what to do. I was just so overwhelmed.”
“I just realized I’m fighting a losing battle and there’s nothing I could do,” she added. “I felt helpless.”
It was the generosity and kindness of Davern that got her son and her through the night.
Blake McGee recalled a time, while wrestling at Daniel Hand High School, when Davern, whose son also wrestled, said to call whenever anyone needed anything — anything at all.
“I felt uncomfortable,” said McGee. “I said, ‘You called her at 2 o’clock in the morning?’”
“Probably because she said to him, ‘Call me if you ever need anything,’ ” she added.
Davern is happy that she is the one Blake McGee thought to phone.
“Everybody’s in life together, right,” she said. “We all have ups and downs and this was a really down point for him (Blake McGee). He’s a kid and I just didn’t want him to have to worry.”
“I wanted to help them,” she added. “It just made me happy to help them. It was a few hours; it was not a big deal.”
This generosity had a snowball effect.
By Saturday, Sept. 4, the basement was pumped out and McGee was waiting for the insurance adjuster and a restoration company to assess the damage.
“We had a total stranger stop by and drop off a pump and we also borrowed one, so most of the water is out,” she said in a text Saturday afternoon.
For Davern this is what community is all about.
“It’s just so nice to see that people realize how fortunate they are and how quick and willing they are to share what they have with others they don’t even know,” she added.