Surviving The 2015 SC Flood

[10forty2]

Last week, we headed out in the coach for Myrtle Beach Bike Week. Made it there with no problems, set up at the KOA on 5th Avenue S in Myrtle Beach...really great people working there and a nice facility/campground....and it started raining. And rained. And rained, and rained. We watched the creek rise to scary levels...coming within about 200' of our campsite. I had everything ready to get of that site if it got worse, but fortunately the rain let up long enough for the creek to go back into it's banks. We made the best of it, rented a car from Enterprise and drove our bright yellow beetle around Myrtle and Murrell's Inlet for the Bike Week Events....finally getting a long enough break in the rain to get the bike out of the trailer for a few hours of riding on Saturday. Then....the REAL rain started to come down Saturday night and all the waterways around us flooded. The creek in the campground managed to keep its water within bounds (I think they had a blocked pipe going under the roadway that caused it to flood in the first place, 'cause after seeing some tractors and maintenance folks, it never came back up to the previous levels even though it rained even harder than before). All roads that would get us home were flooded over and closed....so we stay another night. The next day (Monday)...all roads were STILL flooded...so we stayed another night. It continued to rain off and on until Monday afternoon around 1PM. Nasty weather and we were stuck. But, as stated earlier, the folks at the KOA were super nice about the situation and wouldn't let us pay for the extra nights. Customer service!!! I like it!!

So, to the point of this long dissertation....as we are doing pre-flight to leave Tuesday morning coming home, we noticed that the carpet/floor along the edges of the driver's door and along the edge of the passenger's window were wet....I mean REALLY wet. We soaked up the extra water with towels and turned on a fan to get it started drying. When we got home, we pulled up the carpet edges and found there had apparently been a slight leak somewhere all along as the plywood flooring, a small place on the outside wall in the driver's footwell and the bottom of the slide trim inside behind the driver's seat was wet and starting to rot. Not bad rot but enough to cause me great concern and will make me have to do some repairs.

Now, I need to find the leak so I can get that fixed. My first thoughts were the slide seals...but on inspection, the flooring and walls around the slide are perfectly dry except for that one lower corner. I think it is from transferred water from the wet carpet. The driver's door doesn't have any indication of water coming in around it....nor does the window ( I thought about that since I had replaced one of the foggy panes a while back). The passenger's side appears to be around the window so I'm guessing a resealing around it would be in order. But for the life of me, I can't make any connection between the two sides. The carpet between them along the front firewall is dry so it's not coming in one side and going to the other. My only other thought is the front cap seal allowing water to run in around and down to each side. Is that even a possibility without having any indication of a leak on the roof as well?

Thoughts and discussion??

[Executive45]

.

[rgatijnet1]

I have a shipment coming to Florida from PA. I got the notice this morning that the UPS ground shipments are being delayed because of the weather/flooding. I'm guessing that if the UPS trucks can't get through, it may be a little difficult for those trying it with an RV.

[bullydogs1]

That looks like Bella Terra at Gulf Shores..if it is, then they now have pumps they use. We have a spot there now...

[Executive45]

Last August...lost the toad. CG lost a Prevost, a Turbo Porsche 911 with less than 400 miles on it and a 2009 Newell! I couldn't move the coach because I couldn't move the toad, so I simply aired it up as high as it would go and crossed my fingers....Dennis

[bullydogs1]

That would make me have to change my pants just looking at it Dennis...hope that wasn't too recent...if it was, hopefully you escaped in one piece...

[Executive45]

Exactly! Wood rot doesn't occur after a weekend of rain. You've had a leak for awhile. Water can enter anywhere and travel a great distance before pooling. Don't assume it's leaking anywhere near the pool of water....Dennis

Sometimes I HATE water.

BEFORE:


AFTER:

[Larryect]

Around the windshield?

[DavidP]

coolmom42 wrote:
It's possible that your weep holes were working properly, but were just overwhelmed by the deluge.

But check under the roof edge trim, for sure. If the deluge overwhelmed the gutters it could have leaked through there.

Glad you never got flooded and had a good safe place to stay.

Said he found some wood rot so it has been leaking for a while.

[coolmom42]

It's possible that your weep holes were working properly, but were just overwhelmed by the deluge.

But check under the roof edge trim, for sure. If the deluge overwhelmed the gutters it could have leaked through there.

Glad you never got flooded and had a good safe place to stay.

[10forty2]

Once I get everything dried, I think I'll get the DW to spray it with a water hose while I investigate possible locations. You may be right on the weep holes, cause when I changed the foggy panel, I noted that one of them had some dirt clogging it. That one was cleaned, but it may have stopped back up. There was water sitting in the slide rails of the passenger's side window.

[Tripalot]

It took nearly 4 years to find a leak in our Class A. Our slide topper got damaged in a severe storm and when we had it replaced, the source of the leak was discovered. It was under the area where the slide topper is attached to the slide. Problem solved. Over the years we had the slide seal replaced 4 times (warranty work), the roof inspected and some screws replaced but no one ever thought to look under the topper.

Our leak was at the rear of the coach, however something you might want to check out.

[rgatijnet1]

Also look on the outside to see that the weep slots are clear on your windows. These slots allow water to drain from the window track so that it does not overflow and come inside.

[Captain_Happy]

Glad you guys are all OK. I was also thinking about your water problems. Something else I'd be looking at is the metal trim on the side that holds the rubber roof. Pull the trim out that covers up the screws and see if there any screws rusted. Water can get in that way and run down the inner wall to the floor. I kind of had the same water leak in another MH I use to own. Just me 2 cents worth.