Water Woes

The Northeast has seen the 2nd wettest March on record. Flooded roads, houses, basements...even the schools and office buildings are leaking. We, however, were patting ourselves on the back yesterday, glad *we* had no problems.

Until this morning.

Husband left for work at 9:00 a.m., after working in his basement office. All was well at the time. About 10:30 a.m. I went down to put in a load of laundry, and there was at least an inch of water all over the basement. It wasn't even raining anymore, but we guess the water table was just too high and the water was seeping up from the ground. What a mess. I called husband and he rushed home. (I would so live in a condo if I were single.)

I called around frantically trying to find a pump, while husband used the shop-vac to keep ahead of the water. Every big box home improvement store in the area was sold out of pumps (utility pumps, which are stand-alone, as opposed to sump pumps, which are permanent, I guess). I called around to all the mom-and-pop hardware stores in the area, and all of them were sold out, too. The in-town hardware store said he sold over 250 pumps yesterday afternoon alone. Finally, I located a new-ish hardware store in the next town over, and they had some.

It looks like we are keeping ahead of the water now, although it's still very wet down there. I don't think we'll have any permanent damage, since most things are kept off the floor--just my thing about basements. The rug in the office/finished room is indoor/outdoor, and should dry just fine. I don't think mold will be a problem, and we'll run a dehumidifier. Thankfully, the next 7 days look to be sunny and warm, yay!

And here's a big cheer for the local hardware store, for coming through for us. Support your local stores...you never know when you'll need them.