Rain, Rain, Go Away...

SuperChip64 · April 18th, 2007

Most of you probably have heard (some experienced) the weekend storm. On the East Coast, low pressure centers sometimes intensify off the Carolina or Virginia coast, then race up the coastline with tremendous rain or snow, extreme winds (upwards of Hurricane force), and extensive coastal damage. These are called Nor'easters.

We live on a converted farm in an area primarily built in the 1950's. There is a lake about 1,000 yards from our house, and our water table is about 3' below the basement floor. We've lived in this house since summer 2005, and never had an inkling of water in the basement.

Ours started about 3:00AM Sunday as a light rain. By noon, the pace had picked up and at 3:00PM, it was a soaker. I really wasn't too worried about the basement and the computers downstairs, because even by midnight, the sump pump pit was completely dry. We retired for the night about 1:30 in the morning...

By Monday morning, the sump pit was full, and I plugged it in and watched it drain the pit fine. By the time I left for work (1:00PM) the water started coming through the seams between the floor and walls. My wife went to Home Cheapo and rented two surface pumps, and between us, our former foster son, and our other roommate, we were sweeping water towards the pumps throughout Monday night.

By Tuesday morning, the rain had stopped, but the flow didn't. Our town measured 7 1/2" of rainfall on Sunday, and an additional 5" on Monday. We were working downstairs in 1/2 hour shifts in teams of two from Monday night until Wednesday morning, when the seams stopped bubbling. At no time was there ever more than an inch of water in the basement, and as of this writing (11PM EDT Wednesday), nothing got damaged except the cardboard which goes into recycle next week. There were some spare blankets earmarked for washing that got wet, and the carpet in the computer areas got soaked, but it should be fine. The cable modem has been hooked up, since we've got VoIP phone service - it's a neccessity. I decided to also hook the router up so we could enjoy a little 'net fun in between.

There is still a bit of water in the sump area, since this is the lowest point in the cellar. Since there is no float on the sump, we need to turn it off occasionally, then go about every three hours and sweep the remaining water toward it. Thursday morning, I'll shop-vac the carpets as best as possible, and see if I can borrow the floor blower from the school I work for to completly dry the floor.

Once that's done, I'll be able to place the computers back and continue work that was interupted. My wife and I (plus John and Kim) only have gotten about 12 total hours of sleep since Monday, and Kim and I didn't miss one bit of work, either.

We dodged a bullet this time...

SC64

screwballl · April 18th, 2007

wow good luck!
I remember the soakers and heavy/fast snow melts in SD that got my parents basement flooded... after that he placed 2 sumps with floats in the 2 areas needed and has worked perfect every time... that is a lot of rain but whats nice about this area in FL, we can get 3" over the course of a 30 minute storm and the water just soaks into the sand and disappears quick

April 18th, 2007	#1
SuperChip64 Join Date: Feb 2007 Location: Succasunna, NJ Posts: 28	Rain, Rain, Go Away... Most of you probably have heard (some experienced) the weekend storm. On the East Coast, low pressure centers sometimes intensify off the Carolina or Virginia coast, then race up the coastline with tremendous rain or snow, extreme winds (upwards of Hurricane force), and extensive coastal damage. These are called Nor'easters. We live on a converted farm in an area primarily built in the 1950's. There is a lake about 1,000 yards from our house, and our water table is about 3' below the basement floor. We've lived in this house since summer 2005, and never had an inkling of water in the basement. Ours started about 3:00AM Sunday as a light rain. By noon, the pace had picked up and at 3:00PM, it was a soaker. I really wasn't too worried about the basement and the computers downstairs, because even by midnight, the sump pump pit was completely dry. We retired for the night about 1:30 in the morning... By Monday morning, the sump pit was full, and I plugged it in and watched it drain the pit fine. By the time I left for work (1:00PM) the water started coming through the seams between the floor and walls. My wife went to Home Cheapo and rented two surface pumps, and between us, our former foster son, and our other roommate, we were sweeping water towards the pumps throughout Monday night. By Tuesday morning, the rain had stopped, but the flow didn't. Our town measured 7 1/2" of rainfall on Sunday, and an additional 5" on Monday. We were working downstairs in 1/2 hour shifts in teams of two from Monday night until Wednesday morning, when the seams stopped bubbling. At no time was there ever more than an inch of water in the basement, and as of this writing (11PM EDT Wednesday), nothing got damaged except the cardboard which goes into recycle next week. There were some spare blankets earmarked for washing that got wet, and the carpet in the computer areas got soaked, but it should be fine. The cable modem has been hooked up, since we've got VoIP phone service - it's a neccessity. I decided to also hook the router up so we could enjoy a little 'net fun in between. There is still a bit of water in the sump area, since this is the lowest point in the cellar. Since there is no float on the sump, we need to turn it off occasionally, then go about every three hours and sweep the remaining water toward it. Thursday morning, I'll shop-vac the carpets as best as possible, and see if I can borrow the floor blower from the school I work for to completly dry the floor. Once that's done, I'll be able to place the computers back and continue work that was interupted. My wife and I (plus John and Kim) only have gotten about 12 total hours of sleep since Monday, and Kim and I didn't miss one bit of work, either. We dodged a bullet this time... SC64 CompUSA Blue Case w/ SP2 550w C2D E6300 on DG965WH 2Gb Corsair VS DDR2-667 80Gb Seagate Boot Drive HighPoint RocketRAID 1640 (4) 300Gb Seagate (RAID-1) 256Mb ATI X800XL SB Live! Pro (2) NEC 3550 M-Audio DX4 Speakers (2) HP f1703 17" LCD

April 18th, 2007	#2
screwballl Colonel Calamity Join Date: Oct 2006 Location: Sandy South Posts: 6,278 Blog Entries: 6	Re: Rain, Rain, Go Away... wow good luck! I remember the soakers and heavy/fast snow melts in SD that got my parents basement flooded... after that he placed 2 sumps with floats in the 2 areas needed and has worked perfect every time... that is a lot of rain but whats nice about this area in FL, we can get 3" over the course of a 30 minute storm and the water just soaks into the sand and disappears quick Thanks HL and Corsair! My opinions are my own and not representative of this site or its members.