Would You Know What To Do In Case Of Flood?

While some of Ocean County's roadways were flooding, I was dealing with a flood in my house.  It had nothing to do with the rain.  It had everything to do with my ignorance.  Although I'm embarassed, I'm going to tell you what happened in hopes you might learn from my mistake.

The toilet on the main floor had been acting up.  It would swirl but not flush completely.  I Googled to look for some online solutions.  When a couple of them failed to fix the problem, I did more plunging and then fiddled with the flapper thing inside the tank.  Next thing I know the toilet is overflowing and I was dumbfounded.

Despite my putting a bunch of towels on the floor, the water kept coming until my friend came to the rescue with a text that said: "Turn off the water valve."  That stopped the overflowing and allowed me time to catch my breath and dry up the floor.

I am upset that in the heat of the crisis, my brain froze!  Why didn't I go to the valve immediately?  Why couldn't I remember where the ShopVac was?  Why don't I have my plumber's phone number posted?

Maybe the next thing I should Google is...how to keep calm under pressure!   Well now that everything's okay, I just wanted to remind all of you that there's that silver valve that connects to the toilet.  You can turn that if you're ever in a flooding situation.  Another lesson I learned today was to know where the main water shutoff valve is.   Mine is in the basement.  It might be a good idea for you to familiarize yourself with the location of yours as well.

I hope you never need to use any of this stuff, but if you do, it would be good knowledge to have.  Good luck!