Here Comes the Sun

Well, more figuratively at this point than literally (Beatles aside)... still cloudy and slight rain, but the water levels are dropping further. Both pumps crank away as needed. The flow rate into the basement is now only 25% of Monday's peak.

Brandon and I went to Lowes last night to pickup a wetvac and mops. They had *just* received more stock. The same aisles had been completely bare since this all started.

Last night was the first time since Saturday that I managed a full night's sleep, and tomorrow thru Tuesday is supposed to be sunny and 70s here. Glad to have this come to an end.

We were very fortunate here. At about 10 feet lower across the road, our neighbors definitely bore the brunt of it.

The secondary pump arrived!!!

It came to our door about 9:30am. By 10 o'clock I had it tackling the lower level of our basement - barely 3 hours later it finished. Big sigh of relief, both to get the water out and to know I won't have to do it again by hand. Tracy just went to take a nap now that our 2 man bucket brigades seem to be at an end!

The main sump pump is now at a 50 second interval. While not done, it's so nice to take a deep breath finally.

Local news article re Nor'Easter

A good write-up on events from the Princeton Packet with the following noteworthy sections:

"most area municipalities morphed into islands"... "topped records for the last hundred years for the month of April"... "some longtime residents said it was the first time they had ever seen Grovers Mill Pond flood over".

Many local creeks and rivers are supposed to crest by this morning, if they haven't already. Grovers Mill Pond appears back to normal, and the interval for our pump is now at 39 - the best in 2 days, and continues to trend positively (i.e. the water seepage is slowing).

All the roads are open again. Just hope the power stays on, and that second pump shows today as ordered. While improvement continues, we're not out of the woods yet. At least Tracy and I managed to get some sleep last night.

Slow recovery, but improvement nonetheless!

The rain has held off today, and the flow rate into the basement seems to be slowing. Peak interval time on the pump was 22 seconds - just remeasured and it's 27 seconds now. Hopefully this means things are settling back to normal levels even if slowly. I'll take any improvement at this stage.

I ordered a second, portable sump pump online which should be here first thing tomorrow morning. It should make for a good "backup" device, and help us to clean out the lower part of the basement... sans buckets!!

Feels like "Fantasia"...

We've been bailing out part of the basement by hand for 60 mins, every 4 hours to keep up with the seepage (basically, to take the standing water level down by 2 inches).

Good thing that Tracy and I are in relatively good shape: she fills a bucket and carries it to the stairs, which I take up and out the bilco doors to dump on our second driveway - away from the foundation. Definitely tiring, but we seem to do allright so far.

And our sump pump keeps the rest in check like a trooper. Been kicking in since 3am yesterday. Not sure how long before the water table gets back to normal... at least the rain has mostly stopped, and our forecast for the rest of the week is sunny and 60s.

Pumps, Pails, and Prayers

The pump continues to function and has been emptying every 24 seconds this afternoon. The lower section of our basement (under the kitchen extension) sits 8 inches below the main foundation - and was flooded with 6 inches of water.

Tracy and I just spent the last 90 minutes using pails and hiking the water out thru bilco doors to the backyard. Got the waterlevel down 2 or 3 inches. We need to keep it from flowing up into the main area (where the furnace is...).


The creek across the road is slowly pulling back into its banks. Now we just need the resulting water table to drain off - and out of our basement. I've been up since 3am, but doubt I'll sleep much tonight.

As long as we can keep up with it, absolutely no complaints here. Many of our neighbors were not so fortunate.

Minor local flooding today

We've managed to luck-out so far since my post this morning... just took a video of the creek that Grover's Pond dumps into across the road; posting it to the right shortly. According to the longer-term residents, this is the worst they've seen since Hurricane Andrew (in 1992).

I tried heading to Lowes earlier in the day... *all* roads are closed off, and the water from the pond is spilling straight over Clarksville Road. Hope this pulls back soon.

Our sump pump is now kicking on every 30 seconds. If it goes out for any reason, we will be so screwed... it's gonna be a long day.