Ammon Homeowners Clean Up After Floods

The flood waters have receded in Ammon, leaving many to face the ruins in their basements.

It’s been almost two days since the flood waters rushed through the Cortland Ridge neighborhood, but the ground is still soggy, and in many spots, still covered with sandbags.

“Just … gone,” said Chris Nish, as he surveyed the damage, wondering which mementos his family would have to part with.

Scrapbook stuff, college degrees, and an entire Harry Potter series sat in piles on the floor of Nish’s garage.

Nish picked up a pillow his son gave him for his first Father’s Day. He said it would have to be thrown away because it was still soggy from the dirty flood water that invaded the family’s 3-year-old home on Wednesday night.

“What I keep playing in my head was the window breaking,” said Nish’s son Cameron, 10.

“Ii was standing there looking at it like, ‘I don’t know what to do’ and it just burst,” said Nish.

The force hit him like a wave, also tossing a treadmill and foosball table across the room.

“There’s glass all over in here,” he said. “It just blew down on it.”

Nish said the water rose nine inches, ruining two couches, all of the carpet, and the materials he had just bought to finish two basement bedrooms.

“Just in this room, probably about $1000,” he said.

That cost is all out of pocket because Nish doesn’t have flood insurance and the overflowing canal isn’t covered by a homeowner’s policy. The tab only climbs when you tack on clean-up.

“It was a mess,” said Jordan Norman, who worked on the home as an employee of Webb Cleaning and Restoration.

Norman said the water may have left behind bacteria.

“If it’s hard, like plastic or metal, it should be able to be disinfected,” said Norman. “If it’s porous like carpet or drywall, there’s no way to really disinfect it.”

Now, the Nish’s will have to wait it out to re-renovate the basement they just finished four months ago.

“To see it, just everything we’ve worked so hard on, just, it’s challenging,” said Nish.

Norman said if residents have that kind of damage, they should call professionals because trying to clean it themselves could cause more problems.

Nish said there were people he didn’t even know next to him helping in his basement. He said he can’t thank the community enough.