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When life gives you floodwater, grab your bucket and Ikea bag

Published: 14 Aug. 2025, 13:28

JIM BULLEY
[email protected]

Residents finish cleaning up the basement of an apartment complex in western Gyeonggi. [JIM BULLEY]

By 7 p.m. on Wednesday night, the basement of my apartment complex was a shallow indoor lake. Not deep enough to swim in, but deep enough to justify the sight of 100 neighbors, from kids in Crocs to grandparents in Wellington boots, hauling water in anything that would hold it.

It had started off with about 20 of us. An announcement went out on the apartment complex's public address system asking for volunteers to help remove floodwater from the basement parking lot. My wife and I answered the call, grabbing our one small bucket and, somewhat optimistically, an Ikea shopping bag.

The basement, which spans the entire footprint of the complex, was indeed underwater, but only a few inches of it. It wasn’t enough to cause any damage to the cars parked down there, but certainly more than basements of buildings are generally supposed to contain.

What followed was a sort-of two-hour team-building exercise, but for a team of people that would likely never see each other again. We had about five buckets between us (when do you need a bucket in an apartment?), a whole load of large plastic bowls that are typically used for kimjang (kimchi making), a few Ikea bags (surprisingly watertight), some empty garbage cans, a plastic baby bath and a bright red sled. There were also young children around handing out bottled water to adults already ankle-deep in the stuff.

The method was simple: Ladle water off the ground using anything you can find (dustpans are good) into a nearby receptacle. Carry those full (and surprisingly heavy) receptacles to large industrial plastic trash cans. Slowly empty the trash cans with three underpowered water pumps.

Through a combination of ladling, carrying, heaving and pumping, this ragtag team of ill-equipped residents managed to move a surprisingly large quantity of water (I’m not actually sure where we moved it to — that may well be a problem for another day).

Residents finish cleaning up the basement of an apartment complex in western Gyeonggi. [JIM BULLEY]

By about 9 p.m., the powers that be (I assumed she was part of the apartment management committee, but she could have just been a very officious member of the pack) declared the job done and with a perfunctory round of applause, we all dispersed to our respective buildings for a much-needed shower. The floor wasn’t entirely dry, but the water level had dropped beyond splashing and nobody had to worry about wet hubcaps.

To be clear, my impromptu paddling pool adventure with 100 neighbors is a long way from the worst that could have happened as rainfall exceeded 100 millimeters (3.9 inches) per hour in my area on Wednesday. A man died in the next village over after a car he was a passenger in went into a river, and the basement of the apartment complex next door was fully flooded, and cars had to be moved out to the street.

We were very lucky to get away with a few wet Ikea bags and damp tires. We left behind a basement that was still wet, a collection of makeshift tools and the vague hope that the next storm would be someone else’s problem.

BY JIM BULLEY [[email protected]]