Terre Haute · Guide

River town work is seasonal and it comes all at once

Terre Haute sits on the Wabash, and a river town's heavy work does not arrive gradually. It arrives when the water does. Sandbags, pumps, everything moved up out of a basement, and afterwards everything that got wet carried back out. It is the most awkward lifting a lot of people do all year, done fast, because the deadline is set by the river rather than by you.

Wet weighs far more than dry

A sandbag is a floppy, uneven thirty to forty pounds that will not stay where you put it. Soaked carpet, boxes and furniture are dramatically heavier than the same items dry, and the weight moves around while you carry them.

Expecting one weight and getting another is a classic way to hurt a back.

• Test the weight with a short tug before you commit to the lift.
• Keep it close to your body. Distance multiplies the load far more than weight does.
• Two people on anything soaked, however light it was dry.

Basement stairs are the risk

On stairs you cannot square your feet to the load, and you are twisting to see the next step while holding weight away from you. Put the heavy thing down at the landing rather than carrying it through the turn.

Haste, not weight

Nobody is hurt by the first sandbag. They are hurt on the last one, tired and cold and in a hurry. Fatigue plus haste plus an awkward shape is the mechanism.

When it is worth talking to somebody

Aching for a few days afterwards is expected. Worth a conversation with a qualified provider: pain that came on suddenly during a lift, anything travelling down a leg, numbness or tingling, weakness in a leg or foot, or any loss of bladder or bowel control, which needs urgent care.

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