A few weeks ago, we had a major storm up here in MN. Turns out there were tornados about 20 minutes north of us, so it was a BIG storm. Chris and I were on our way home from the club when the power went out, and it was a pretty scary drive - no stoplights, no streetlights, huge branches in the road, rain so thick and heavy you couldn't see much more than 15 feet in front of the car. Eventually, we managed to make it home safely and enjoyed the storm from indoors.
We didn't enjoy it for long, though. With the power out, we became increasingly concerned about our sump pump. It works fantastically - as long as we have electricity to power it. When we had it installed, we opted not to spend the extra money for the battery backup...and water was pouring into it pretty fast. So, we each grabbed two 1-gallon buckets, and we began to bale. At first, we had to bale every 10 minutes or so, carrying the water through the basement to the laundry room sink. But the storm just raged on, and at one point, we realized we couldn't get the water down to a low enough level to leave it. So, we baled continuously for about an hour and a half. Visions of being up all night long baling water were all I could concentrate on. Chris did the math, and it turns out we were baling 4 gallons per minute. Not fun. At one point, as I was dumping my bucket, it poured back at me, rather than forward into the sink. That was a nice cold warning to pay more attention to what I was doing!
As we were baling, we were becoming increasingly aware that each time we came to fill up, the water level was higher. The basin was filling up faster than we could empty it! We started talking each time we passed each other on our way to or from the sink, wondering how long it would take before the water would start pouring into the basement... It was understatement to say we were a little concerned.
At about 10:45, the power came back on, and the pump quickly and efficiently emptied the sump basin. I'm pretty sure I literally did a little dance of joy!
Now we're looking into the most cost effective yet reliable way of getting a battery backup installed. We do NOT want to have to do this again...
2 comments:
Wow! Did Grandma ever have these issues? I don't remember hearing about them...
It sounds like a TV show episode, but not as funny
No, not funny at all.
I don't think Grandma had this particular problem, b/c when she lived there, she didn't have the sump pump. The basement would have just flooded. I guess I'd rather bale that have a flood...
She may have had the chimney/fireplace problems, but I'm not sure. I'm guessing that's just a function of an old house getting older, and things starting to go wrong...
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