Winds, weather and water--lots of water

The temperature has gone up, and the thawing and the rain have brought all kinds of water in places where it's not welcome.  Including our basement, which is on the same level as the garage.  In the forty-some years that Mr. Fixit has known this house (it was his grandparents' before we bought it), the drains in the basement have never failed, even in wet weather.  Until last night.  Mr. Fixit is slightly insomniac anyway, and something around 2:30 in the morning told him to go and check on the status of things.

The status was several inches of water in our laundry area and basement entrance, some trying to get into the storage room, and more coming into the garage under the doors.  Mr. Fixit and Mama Squirrel spent about two hours, in boots and pajamas, bailing, sopping, wringing, pouring, and mopping.

The damage so far is not too significant.  All the floor mats in that area will have to be replaced, but some of them were old anyway.  The water that got into the storage room stayed in the middle, so it missed the shelves. The laundry appliances and vacuum cleaner (stored on the floor there) seem all right.  We had to toss part of a box of stuff being packed for the thrift store, and re-wash a few towels and things that got damp (besides all the old towels that we used to mop things up).  There is some concern about the places we couldn't reach to get clean or dry, but we are running heaters and trying to get everything dried out quickly.  It could have been a lot worse.

But we went out this morning and bought a new Shop-Vac.  Just because.