Cat Litter to Soak Up Flood Water? Yay or Nay?

We don't get a ton of rain in the Borderland so it's not surprising we aren't really prepared when it hits hard. There is one trick that you can use to help if your house is flooding. Kitty litter. Yes, it can be used to soak up water you might have at your house. When I look into this online I see some articles that say you can use this trick, while others say be careful because it can become a problem.

We used this trick when our house flooded back in 1996. Portland went through pretty rough bit of flooding back in 1996. The rains just kept coming even more so than normal. The pipes that are in the ground around our house to redirect the water became clogged and ended up pushing the water toward the foundation of the house. Eventually the foundation cracked and the basement flooded. Thankfully it wasn't a massive flood with three feet of water. It was just enough to soak everything and ruin the carpet.

We eventually tore up the carpet and had to come up with a way to soak up the water that was still coming in. Again, it was flowing in like a busted open fire hydrant, but it was still coming through the crack in the foundation. My dad ended up going and getting kitty litter to soak up the water. Guess what. It worked. It worked like a charm. Of course, you don't want to let it sit for too long, but it did soak up the water.

The floods were so bad the city even had dump sites to get rid of things that were ruined from the flooding. We took the used kitty litter there and one of the workers was shocked. He didn't understand what we were doing. After my dad explained it to him, it suddenly made sense to him.

I can't completely endorse using the cat litter to soak up water from floods because I have seen too many websites and articles from people who have had problems using it for that purpose. It did work for us though.