Oh, don’t you love basements!?

Our electricity was off for much of the day Sunday. My friend Vicki has a 1928 Tudor house about 5 blocks up from here. She texted me that her basement was flooded. I didn’t even think about it until then but having no electricity meant our sump pump was off, too. And since the snow outside was melting and it was still raining then, I discovered that we had about 2-3 inches of water in our basement! Most of our stuff was up on platforms that were high enough to keep it out of the water but a few things in cardboard boxes on the floor didn’t escape the flood. If the power hadn’t come back on when it did, there would have been a lot more damage.
Amazingly, when the power came back on the sump pump pumped it all out within an hour or so. At one point we resorted to bailing—about 30-40 gallons (about 15-20 buckets full) or so—to try to stem the tide. I think it helped a little. I also discovered a drainage hole in the side of the sump pit from which most of the water was gushing into the pit. I hadn’t seen it before. I have no idea where the water was coming from—some kind of hidden drainage system.
I’m still working on recovering. From now on everything will be up off the floor and in plastic boxes.
I realized that having a basement is not all pros, without cons…
MERRY CHRISTMAS!