After having our basement flood twice in the four years we've been here, Shane installed a sump pump summer before last. All has been fine (aka, dry) in the basement sense then, but yesterday not only did we get about 4-1/2 inches of rain in a short time, but we also lost electricity for a couple of hours. No power, no sump pump.
Of all the things we DO have around here, one thing we didn't have was a generator. That's been remedied, since Shane went out and bought one yesterday. He put in the oil and gassed it up, and was just ready to plug the sump pump into it when our lights came back on. The water in the sump pump's reservoir was just about an inch from overflowing in to our basement at that point, so we narrowly escaped yet another dowsing downstairs.
I'm glad we have the generator now, although we didn't actually use it yesterday. It's not a huge one like we had when we lived in the country, but it's enough to run the sump pump and one fridge in the summer, and enough to run a space heater or two to keep us warm and keep the pipes from freezing if we lose power in the winter. It's a good thing to have around.
Now, how is it that a relatively clean house can become such a disaster area in just two short hours without electricity? We have candles, plates (from eating cold sandwiches for supper) and other stuff spread all over the kitchen and living room. We could have picked up after the lights came back on -- there was plenty of time before bed to do that -- but for some reason, we didn't. Saving it all for today seemed like the better option at the time.
I'm rethinking that now.
Wednesday, June 9, 2010
Disaster Averted
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6 comments:
A generator is on my want list too. I personally think we need one since we have so many storms over here but we just haven't bit that bullet yet. K wants to get one of the big ones and have it permanently installed. Does that make sense? Any way--glad you didn't flood.
Wow! I'm so glad you didn't have a flood this time!
A generator would definitely be a good thing to have around!
Sheila: Yes, that makes sense. The one we bought when we lived in the country (after a huge ice storm and power outage scared us into buying it) had a hard-wired to the house. It would run almost the entire house, but you could pick and choose which circuits to omit or include. We moved (and sold the generator without the panel) before we ever needed to use it.
McVal: Ugh! The first flooding event was more than enough, and the second one was definitely too much, which is why I didn't even question Shane when he went out to buy one yesterday.
Disaster averted is right!
After seeing the neighbors finished basement destroyed twice in 3 yrs plus the fact that we sit right on the Reading Prong(hello radon!)we opted not to finish our basement off nor do we store anything down there as it's too musty.
In 10 yrs. we've only flooded once. The next summer after that lovely happening, we had a landscaper put in drainage ditches to divert the runoff water around the house into the culvert and we've been dry ever since....the sump pump helps too.lol
Generators are good to have around. My brother lived near the shore and had one for hurricane season....often they didn't evacuate but the winds still took out the power lines. When we lived in the Poconos our power use to go off weekly. We heated the house with a woodstove so we didn't freeze but it would have been nice to have lights too.lol
Generators are handy things to have around....you'll sleep sounder at night just knowing you have one.
We flooded with sewage 3 times. So I think that your generator is one of the best investments that you can make! And no, we don't have one. We have a check valve and a crawl space. That has flooded but nothing was ruined. We have an injector pit and that has stopped the sewage even when others were flooding with it. YUCK!
I'm sure that you will get caught up. When we have problems it always seems like it takes a few days to get back in the swing of things.
SO glad you didn't flood this time! Generators are a good thing to have around, just in case, no question.
I think when you have no electricity, candles are lit...you seem to relax more - who wants to clean up after THAT? ;-)
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