March 1998, wife and I are ensconced in our 2 BR apartment in Alexandria, VA. Hear a loud POW and then water starts jetting out of every opening in the ceiling. WTF, we're running around like chickens with their heads cut off with water continuing to jet down. Call the property management office, goes to voicemail, leave a panicked message. At this point, we've got about 3 inches of water and more keeps coming down. Open the patio door, front door, garage door (had an attached 1 car garage), still coming down. Dial 911 and ask for fire department to come out. Fire trucks show up and the water is about knee deep in our apartment even with the doors open. Finally remember the wife's cat and go searching for it. She's under the bed and the carpet has floated up so much she is pinned between the carpet and the box springs. Drag the cat out by her tail, throw her in the cat carrier and put in the bathtub, which ironically enough was the driest spot in the whole fucking apartment.
Firemen finally turn the water off and we learn that the sprinkler system for this 400 plus unit apartment complex broke directly over our apartment. I ponder whether I should be more diligent in my church attendance. Water is turned off, we've moved our clothes over to the neighbor across the breezeway; neighbors two floors up took the cat in for the night.
Long story short, had to threaten legal action to get apartment to let us out of lease. Every piece of furniture and electronics we had were totally fucked. Allstate dragged their feet and put us off on resolving renters insurance claim until I finally filed a complaint with the VA insurance commissioner and copied every executive at Allstate I could find on the internet, and then, 10 months after the event, we got a very healthy check from Allstate.
So, in summary, prepare thy anus and fight the good fight.