The Water Geist
Maybe an Exorcist could Help
from Edward Scissorhands
When we got a new roof and solar panels on the first day after the job was complete, I got a call from a tenant saying that their roof was leaking from the peak and was filling a Home Depot bucket a third of the way up. I went and had a look and sure enough, the water was coming in a steady drip right at the peak.
Checking the roofing turned up only the fact that the roofing went over the peak and had a brand new sturdy length of flashing over that. Made for an awkward conversation with the roofer because there wasn't anything for him to do. Never happened again.
The house showing the corner that leaks and two unidentified blues thing above
Wish I could say the same for the leak in the bathroom that brought a 10”x22” foot section of the plaster ceiling to fall down while Brianna was in the bath tub not far away. When I stuck my head in the hole it was plain to see that the water was coming from next to a pipe that went through the ceiling to the roof above. A handy marker. Nope. The pipe is slathered in sealant, there is a new roof, pristine in every direction and a large patch the roofers put down. Out of frustration I coated the immediate area with Henry's Wet Patch.
One night when I had given up working on it I heard someone knocking on the door. Brianna is in the bath. The dogs are barking. No one is at the door. "It's coming from the ceiling. To be specific, the great big hole in the ceiling made last week due to yet another leak. Tap tap tap tap. Like a woodpecker. Nothing on the roof to account for it. The wind rattling the ladder wasn't it. Back in the bathroom talking to Brianna about it I tapped on the door. Tap tap tap tap….tap tap tap tap came the immediate response. Wanting to show that it was a coincidence I did it again. Back came the same number of taps. I have a video on phone of this. Gulp. So it wasn't a rat or the wind.
Certain amount of unease crept in but we lived through the slapping ghost in the bedroom and largely treated it as if it were the wind making a cable slap against the wall by our bed. Only once when Brianna was away for a week did it creep me out. Then it stopped. That was a year or more.
After much head scratching and after borrowing from EBMUD, the local water co, a $1500 infrared camera, which only confused me more with a bunch of chaotic rainbows, I went and bought this crazy expensive roof coating. That's crazy expensive, as in $500 for five gallons crazy expensive. We put that on a couple of weeks ago and waited for rain.
A "storm" came with much fanfare and dropped a tenth of an inch on Saturday and another tenth on Sunday. Today a week later we found a decorative metal chicken, the size of a fist that had fallen and popped in two, the bottom half full of water and the surrounding area with splatter marks
. Above is totally coated out with the marvelous white goo that set up in a furious twenty minutes so we looked like vaudeville clown act slinging it across the whole front wall of the roof.
I was consoling myself with the idea that I would approach the problem from the inside and dig through the ceiling and trace where the leak came from when Brianna reminded me I had done that at the other side from the bathroom, which is where this leak is, and come to a dead end in the stucco of the outside wall. I was talking to the roofer on the phone above and he kept saying he didn't see anything. I went up. Also nothing, not a crack in the paint, nothing.
We'd just finished and were cleaning up after putting wet patch on the area of the roof under the porch, tearing up boards to reach and going underneath in cramped places. Fumes. So this was cruel timing on top of the problem itself. I think I need to call a priest or a witch, whatever the opposite of a rainmaker is.
Glad to see we have plenty of company. Never heard of this before.
Rain Poltergeists
April 1842 - It was documented that water poured from the sky in a steady stream over a particular small point in Noirtonfontaine, France. It continued for more than two days without any logical meteorological explanation.
October 1886 - Although there were no clouds in the sky to account for the phenomenon, a steady rain soaked a piece of land in Chesterfield County, South Carolina. It could have been dismissed as a freak rainfall if it had not lasted for an astonishing 14 days!
October 1886 - Over a three-week period, the Charlotte Chronicle (North Carolina) reported, several eyewitnesses saw rainfall onto a certain spot between two red oak trees every afternoon at 3 p.m. It lasted for one half-hour, then stopped. Stranger still, the sky was always sunny.
Fall, 1886 - How is it possible for rain to fall on an area measuring just 10 square feet? It happened in Aiken, South Carolina.
November 1886 - An area not much bigger — just 25 feet wide — was the focus of a steady flow of water from the sky in Dawson, Georgia.
November 1892 - A peachtree was the sole beneficiary of a bizarre rain that came down in Brownsville, Pennsylvania. Witnesses said the rain seemed to come out of thin air just several feet above the tree and fall in an area about 14 feet surrounding the thirsty tree.
Water Poltergeists
Water dropping from seemingly nowhere outside is one thing, but when it occurs indoors without any logical cause, that's quite another thing. Paranormal researchers have, in many cases, found this water manifestation to an element of poltergeist activity that is occurring in the house. Usually, there are other symptoms as well: banging on the walls, doors opening and closing of their own accord, lights going off and on, odd odors and more. It is thought that this poltergeist phenomenon is a kind of psychic activity generated by a member of the household.
August 1995 - During a summer drought in Lancashire, England, the Gardner family was plagued by water dripping from their ceilings and walls. This has been going on for 10 months before a paranormal investigator was brought in. The attic space above the wet ceiling was found to be "bone dry."
November 1972 - An odd case centered around a nine-year-old boy named Eugenio Rossi in Nuoro, Sardinia. Suffering from a liver ailment, the boy was hospitalized. Shortly thereafter, water inexplicably began to seep up through the floor of his hospital room. Changing rooms didn't help. Wherever the hospital staff moved him — a total of five times — the puddles would appear.
1963 - The Martin family of Methuen, Massachusetts was forced to move from their home because of their water poltergeist. In this case, apart from the water dripping from walls and ceilings, it was on occasion described as literally "spurting" from various points throughout the house. Unfortunately, moving didn't help. The phenomenon continued in Martin's new home.
August 1919 - A rectory in Norfolk, England had more than water to contend with. When the residents noticed oily patches on the ceiling, investigators were brought in the find the cause. To their astonishment, they began to collect the drippings at the rate of a quart every 10 minutes. Some of it was plain water, but the rest appeared to be kerosene, gasoline, alcohol and sandalwood oil - as much as 50 gallons of the stuff. No cause was discovered.
Footnote: distantly related
Chupa has macular degeneration, can’t see anything in front of her. Does this from time to time. Can’t imagine what she’s seeing. Always either in the exact spot you see here or just over my head. She wags her tail so hoping it’s some discarnate helper visiting from time to time.