The first flood was due to clogged gutters and an open window well during a rainstorm. The window well quickly filled with water, which leaked in through the window. This has happened from time to time, but one of our pumps was not working properly, so a fair amount of water entered the basement. We were able to move things out of the way and get the water pushed out to the other pump. We also replaced the faulty pump.
Then, we had another major storm, which knocked out our power. Foolishly, we did not get battery backups for our pumps after the first flood, so the basement flooded again. We hauled out furniture and got everything up off the floor as the water continued to rise. All in all in was only a few inches, but a few inches across 1600 sq ft of basement is a lot of water.
We tried to call Servepro, but there is nothing they can do while the power is out. We bought extension cords and a small generator so that we could run the pumps. That generator leaked oil, so 12 hours later we bought a bigger generator that could run both pumps at once.
When we left for our trip the power was still out, but we had a family friend stop by every few hours to start the generator. The power was out for a total of 53 hours. Nothing important was damaged, but between the new pump, the generator, and other miscellaneous expenses, this flood costs us a fair amount of money.
This is the status of our basement post flood:
It's easy to take passive conveniences like power for granted. This flood made us realize that there is no point in investing not one dollar into our basement until we get a subpanel and backup generator installed.
