Battling with Water

I had been battling with water all night last night to protect my condo... I only had 2-3 hours of sleep... but it didn't matter... I had to save my condo...

Last night around 12:30am, the fire alarm in my condo started ringing. I didn't pay attention at first, but since it kept ringing, I went out the balcony to see whether anyone went outside. I didn't see anyone. Since it was raining outside, I was hoping that this was just a false alarm. To be safe, I planned to check on my neighbors to see their reactions. Then, as soon as I opened the door, I was stunned by what I saw in the hallway. The hallway was filled with smoke... not from fire... but steam from hot water... There was a layer of water on top of soaking wet carpet... The whole hallway was flooded by hot water!!!

The water was leaking into my condo from the bottom of all common walls... I had got water coming inside from the bathroom wall, the door, and closet wall. I immediately searched for something to stop the water... I put some older home clothes (clothes that I wear at home only) at the edge of the wall to block waters as my first line of defense... Then, I searched for some towels (bath tub towels, kitchen towels, etc.) to soak water as my second line of defense...

In the mist of searching and placing the defenses, I was using one hand to keep dialing the security phone #. Every time I got the security voice mail, I wanted to swear. After many tries, the security guard finally answered the phone. I told him about the flooding and he said he'll notify the firemen immediately.

Well... Water kept coming in... And of course... I am the third line of defense!!
I kept running back and forth drying the towels in bath tub and put them back on the floor to soak more water... I needed to stop the water from entering the laminated floor areas... I didn't want my stuff to be damaged...

Eventually the firemen came... I heard a lot of banging... The owner of the water leaking condo wasn't home... The firemen had to use an axe to break open the door...

I took a peak outside from time to time... At around 1:30am, one fireman told me that there was a broken water pipe in the heater of another condo... They had stopped the water leak but the water had went down 5 floors... All hallways are soaked...

At around 3:30am, the firemen had pushed a lot of the water out the hallway down the stairs. Water is still leaking into my condo but at a much slower rate. I dried all towels/clothes one more time and put some paper towels around them to replace me as third line of defense before going to sleep.

At around 5:30am, I was awakened by some loud noises. I guessed the builder had sent some people to clean up the mess. I got out of bed to dry all towels/clothes again. I had also put some new paper towels before going back to sleep.

At around 7am, some people from the builder knocked on my door asking about the damages. They said they would use machines to clean my condo but never came. I guessed they went to the other condos with more serious damages. Since I had been soaking water all night, my condo's damages were minimal compared to some other condos.

Elevators had stopped working due to the flood... I had to walk down many many floors to go to work... I was afraid that I have to walk up many many floors to go home. Luckily, when I came home from dinner, one of the elevators is working.