My dad uses a sump pump to keep water out of our well pit. (little ironic, huh? :) )

I remember having to use the bucket system when we were younger...the sump pump is a much better way!

Lisa

Kate, I am sorry for your troubles. We used to sweep my mother's basement so often until someone decided it was the chimney. Good luck!

Carla

Kate, do you know anyone with a water feature in their garden? I have a little pond pump that will suck water at just 1/4" - bought my own after borrowing the pump from my SILs pond 3 or 4 times. I do have a deep utility sink in my basement, water goes into there via a 12' length of garden hose, but I don't know why you couldn't use a longer hose and direct it out a window or door into the yard.

A 5 gal wet-dry shop vac will take care of anything less than 1/4", but just a couple of gallons of water in one of those is heavy if you have no place downstairs to pour.
Thank God for my utility sink, at one time the laundry must have been in the basement of this house.

I follow with circulating fan to make sure no mildew begins growing. I totally sympathize with water problems...been there and done that, last time DH was in Montana hunting two states away, making me the unhappy camper :)

Take care, Kate! Aaack! I haven't a clue - my cellar is made of red clay.

Lowe's or HD, etc should have some kind of an automatic pump available quickly, but that's the best I know.

Ooh, I just read Morz8's post - there is a wet/dry vac that you hook a garden hose onto and vacuum pump away - less than $100 at Lowes and works great as a normal shopvac, too.

There may be pumps that you don't have to stay with, but if you like things that do more than one thing, that vacuum is handy.

Thank you for all the suggestions. For the moment, I'm going to hold off--the water seems to have gone down a couple inches, so maybe the drain is slowly draining. I'll re-assess tomorrow--if not much better, I may invest in one of the gadgets mentioned above.

My next-door neighbor says her basement is flooded also. Maybe the city's storm dainage system was on overflow or something--we've had more rain than I've ever seen in Kansas.

Cross your fingers and hope it will continue draining--and that no more rain comes for awhile!

Thanks so much for all your ideas.

Kate

Kate,
I don't know what part of Kansas you are in, but here in So Central ks, our forecast is for 40 days and nights...
Where does your water drain to? Do you have a sump that just shoots it back on the ground? The ground is most likely totally saturated already, and you could end up with even more water if your foundation has a leak. We've been dealing with a foundation repair company that seems excellent, so I know these problems can be corrected. You can find a wet/dry vac at Home Depot, Lowes, Walmart, Sears, and most farm stores. People working there can find a hose to hook up to it so you shouldn't have to carry any water up stairs. Is your basement finished? Will the city or your trash company haul away wet carpeting? The disaster cleanup places like Service Master or NCRI rent out fans that will quickly dry the place out so you don't have mold problems. Depending on whether the water was from the ground or from storm sewer back up, you might want to call them!
Wish I could help. You sure have my sympathy.
Cindi

Update: As of this evening, almost all the water has drained out of my basement--hurray! I'm thinking the city storm drains were so overloaded that nothing could drain for awhile. All my neighbors had flooded basements this morning also.

Only 30% chance of rain the next couple days, then drops down to 10% chance fro the next week. Not only will my basement have a chance to dry out thoroughly, but hopefully my roses will perk up and get on with the bloom thing.

Thanks again for all the suggestions--I'm keeping them in reserve for any possible future floods.

Kate

Kate, I'm happy to hear the good news. We live on a hill, but when we've had the proverbial 40 days/nights of rain, coinciding with high tide and W wind, I can get water in my cement-only basement. Go figure.

Even though the water has drained, I'd still like to caution you to put a fan or some means of circulating air down there for a while. Not necessarily heat, just movement.

wow, hard to imagine P-burg flooded!! Ya'll need to start building an ark!

Kate,
It is not a question of water leaking into your basement, the water table has risen above the level of your basement floor. As it recedes, your basement is drying out.

If this is the first time you have flooded, it is probably not worth doing anything. If your basement floods regularly, it is worthwhile to dig a hole and add a sump pump.

Yeah, you don't want to mess with a mold situation. That can really make you sick. Stick a fan down there to dry things out. Hope it stays dry and you don't have any more problems
Kathy

I agree with HarryShoe, if this is the fist time this has happened, it probably will never happen again in your lifetime. I know you have recieved a great amount of rain recently and the water table is so high, it's like trying to drain uphill. Never happens. Just run a fan down there for several days to make certain the water is all evaporated. Sit back and sip on a cool one, you'll be fine.

Our kitchen flooded 2 times over the past few weeks so we called our homeowners association. They drilled holes in the lower walls after removing the baseboards and undid the carpeting in the dining room and set up 2 large fans to dry the place out. The fans went for about 36 hours. Now we are waiting for the dishwasher to be fixed (bum timer caused it to overfill) then they will come in and clean the carpet and repaint the baseboards and put the dishwasher back in. This was for about an inch of water.
Good luck with your water problem.

Oh,peachiekean --what a mess. You are lucky that your homeowners association handles these things.

Here in small town Kansas, we don't have such associations--at least not in my neighborhood. But fortunately for me, the dampness is confined to the basement which is used only for things like the furnace and hot-water heater and is being aired out. Did have to re-light the hot-water heater, however.

Hope you are dried out soon. And thanks for the sympathy posting.

Kate