The Impending Flood

[Brian Rupnow]

Barrie is one of the snowiest places I have ever lived. This has been the snowiest winter I can ever remember in the all the time I have been here (since 1986). It has snowed every day since the beginning of December--it's absolutely awesome!!! I live on an aquifer.--That is to say, all of the surrounding land which is at a much higher elevation than where I live drains through the ground here, year round. When the weather turns warm, as it is bound to do sometime in the next 8 weeks, my sump pump comes on every 3 minutes.--For about 3 weeks straight. My basement footings are surrounded by perforated 4" tile, which drain into a sump hole in my basement, and during the big thaw, its just like Niagara Falls running into that sump hole. My sump pump pumps this water out through a 2" line to a French drain about 60 foot away from my house, on the "down-hill" side. Last year, the electricity went out in the midst of a wild and crazy spring storm, and didn't come back on for six hours. I drove all over town trying desperately to buy, rent, borrow or steal a gasoline powered pump or generator, because I was minutes away from having an indoor pool---the kind you don't want. By the time I found a rent-all place with a Honda generator, and a big strong kid to help me get the pump in place and started, the water was within half an inch of the top of the sump hole. The day was saved, but only by mere minutes, and I almost had a heart attack/nervous breakdown as a result. And that was when I still had the original 1980's snot green carpet throughout the basement. This winter, good wife and I have engaged a fleet of home repairmen to strip out all of the carpet and lay new laminate flooring in the main basement and in my engineering office and paint thru the entire downstairs to "freshen it all up". My home insurance people called this week to inform me that since the great flood in Toronto during mid winter, everyone's coverage on their basement is now $2000 deductible. So---Today I bought a gasoline powered generator.---Not a cheap one either. I demanded that it be one with a battery and charger and electric starter. As I grow older, and lamer with arthritis and encroaching age, the last thing I need in life is to be yanking my guts out trying to get the engine to start. Why does this appear on a machining forum?--I knew somebody would ask. My lathe and mill and bandsaw and a host of tooling are in a wing off my engineering office, and I don't want to see anything there submerged.--Jeez--The older I get, the more things I can find to spend money on!!!---Brian

 

[aonemarine]

I know the feeling all too well...I think I was flooded out when you visited last?

 

[Brian Rupnow]

Yes, you had a soggy basement when I was there. Horrible rainy weather. Wife and I left your place and that same rain pursued us all the way to the Canadian border.

 

[Philjoe5]

After two multiple day power outages in our neighborhood in the past 2 years, I bought a small 3500 watt generator and had a transfer switch installed last year. That setup saved my butt a few weeks ago when the power was out for almost 3 days and we had single digit (Fahrenheit) overnight lows. We had neighborhoods near us that were without power for 8 days

Our only source of heat is a gas furnace that won't run without it's 800 watt blower motor. With temperatures being what they were pipes are subject to freezing unless the whole system is drained. Getting either lazier, or smarter in my old age.

Within a mile of my house there's a museum parking lot filled with maybe 20 - 30 tree clearing and power trucks. Getting ready for the next storm due here tomorrow.

Cheers,
Phil

 

[Walltoddj]

I had the very same problem when I was in Buffalo NY. They make a battery back up pump that runs off a car type battery so the pump fails which mine did it will come on at a set level. I moved before I looked into the second type that was a water driven jet system of some type. You may want to look into a back up so you will always have a pump to run power or not. An yes I waded though 6" deep water to a dead pump with the power still on to kill the breaker next to it.

Todd

 

[gus]

I had the very same problem when I was in Buffalo NY. They make a battery back up pump that runs off a car type battery so the pump fails which mine did it will come on at a set level. I moved before I looked into the second type that was a water driven jet system of some type. You may want to look into a back up so you will always have a pump to run power or not. An yes I waded though 6" deep water to a dead pump with the power still on to kill the breaker next to it.

Todd

Hi Todd,
Our parent plant(Ingersoll-Rand) at Painted Post was flooded in 1971. Did not realise it was that bad till I went to Corning Glass Plant and they showed me the water level marked on the wall.
We are having a dry spell in Singapore now till the SW Monsoon kicks in. Water wise not a problem with out reservoirs and water recycling and desalinating plants. Neighbouring Malaysia is having water rationing and we are supplying some treated water. Shame, a country with so much water resources but no water conservation and Singapore had to supply them emergency supplies.

 

[Brian Rupnow]

Well, I drove down to Toronto and picked the beast up this morning. It required a minimum of assembly.--Bolted two wheels and a front support bar with rubber anti-vibration feet on it. Added a quart of oil to the sump, put in a gallon of gas, pressed the start button, and away it went. Runs very smoothly. I plugged in a 1/2 hp. electric motor I have on my workbench and it ran like a top.--The generator didn't even grunt. Total cost, including 13% government tax was $1120 out the door. I know that I could have got a generator much smaller to do what I want (basically run the sump pump) for about $400 but they don't come that small with electric start.--My wife said---"Look at it this way---It only cost half what the deductible on our below grade house insurance would have been!!"--I hate to pay that much money for something I think I will only need about 3 weeks out of the year, but when all this snow begins to melt I'm sure I will rest a bit easier, knowing I have it.---Brian

 

[Walltoddj]

Brian I'd still think about a back up sump pump it was a life saver for me.

Todd



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[Brian Rupnow]

Todd--I have two back up sump pumps, one in the hole and one in the closet in reserve. None of them work when the electricity goes out.

 

[Herbiev]

Very interesting reading the above posts. Living in the driest state on the driest continent on earth I am not looking forward to my next water bill as we have just had the hottest summer on record and tried to keep the lawn from dying off.

 

[goldstar31]

Perhaps someone should mention what is going on not just in the British Isles but also on the western seaboard of France. It may be much more than this but there is a limit to being able to get news from the rest of Europe. I know that my son will be heading off to where there is still over 11 feet of snow- and this is March.

So what is happening? Well, enough of little men in sheds and the roof blowing off me little shed and the odd dog frozen to the lamppost. There is something called the Jet Stream. It was unknown when I did my Advanced Level Physical Geography and that heap of useless paper in my drawer. We talked about the Gulf Stream Drift of the British Isles being warmed by a drift of water that started in the Caribbean and made its way to - past us and I forget where else but it kept the Russian port of Murmansk ice free for our aid convoys- always assuming that they made it. Well, it's not happening the way that my teachers assured us.
Yesterdays Sunday Times - a fairly reliable rag, has announced that this is the wettest winter that we have had since 1910 when we invented how to measure water depth with a dip stick.

This Jet Stream thing has shifted. Don't ask me why, but it has. It was supposed to originate in the Sargasso Sea or some such place but apparently we are blaming the Chinese now.
So we - the Brits- have been underwater in the Western bit that faces you lot and the South which faces- water. We have flooding and it arrived before Christmas- and still hasn't run away- yet. It wasn't just water but it was accompanied by fierce storm force winds which were topping 100 mph bringing down power lines, pylons, trees- and railway lines.
Mere a few hour electric outages is piffling stuff, this is big, Big, BIG.

Again, the stately Sweet Thames Run Softly of Gibbins and Windsor Castle and the Eton Boating Song- has overflowed- and is still doing it. The Famous Severn bore- you know Ironbridge and all that Jazz - has run backwards or something. There was a bunch of these so called white water canoeists all ready to do daring deeds - and merely got damp.

Along that wonderful bit Welsh coast famous for Sospan Bach and various Rugby songs going around the Gower in a Quarter of an Hour has a railway line which is hanging like child's toy- with the underpinning- gone- GONE.

Us- well, nothing serious. With yet another hurricane scheduled and a lot of rather high trees threatening to topple, I packed a couple of survival bags. Insurances, deeds, money, medicines and a spare set of underwear each( you never know)

And the next storm -with snow is on the way.

I just felt that you should know.

Fingers and legs crossed- and all that.

Regards

Norman

 

[Conibear]

Brian A few years ago we had we had the same problem, I now keep a spare pump and a generator on hand. I live across the lake from you in Beaverton and we also have had more snow this year then weve had in a long time. But still its not as much as youve got.

Stay dry Trapper

 

[barnesrickw]

Has anybody seen my cubits scale?


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[Brian Rupnow]

Here I set, high as a Lord on Minwax fumes. Well, not really high, but MAN--That stuff stinks!!! Seeing as the home renovators done such a stunning job on the painting and new flooring in my office and the main basement, I decided that finally, after 14 years, I would stain all of the home made particle board extensions to my work-desk and my book cases and my reference table. Since I had to dismantle everything anyways to get the flooring done, I thought now would be the perfect time to do that. Except---I'm Canadian--and it's still colder than a witches tit out in my main garage. So---Everything was dragged out into the main garage and stained today. (Staining particle board is much like staining a sponge--I used 3 times as much stain as I though I would need). Then, everything was allowed to dry (as much as it can dry at -2 degrees) and then dragged into my heated office to finish drying. If my house doesn't explode tonight, I bet my wife and I will have some wild and crazy dreams-----

 

[gus]

Take care.

Over here ,the horrible dry seasonal haze resulting from forest clearing/burning will be blown over from Sumatra. Last year it hit 400 ppm which was still bearable for most but not some.The cities and villages in Sumatra had 400-----800 ppm. And their local mayors are powerless to address bad haze.The poor locals were complaining to deaf ears.
With Indonesia's co-operation, haze hopefully will be minimise to below 100. The healthy level is 40 and below. However, haze and dry weather is good fishing for Gus.

 

[johnnyo]

I remember when a very heavy thunderstorm rolled in and our power went out. No generator and we had just recently finished our basement to the tune of about 9 K. It was about midnight when I went to bed and realized I never checked the basement. Those two sump pits were full and I started to bail them out when I remembered the new Tacoma I just bought had a 110 v outlet in the bed. I pulled the truck up to the house and ran a cord in the window across the room to the sump pump. It ran that pump all night, just left it idling in the driveway. I love my Tacoma!
John

 

[Brian Rupnow]

The Rupnow fortune just took another big hit. Today I purchased a new battery powered submersible sump pump with 1.5" discharge tube and footvalve and an audible alarm loud enough to wake the dead if it comes on. Rated for 1380 gallons per hour. Then I took my old deep cycle 12 volt boat battery in to be tested, and of course, being 18 years old it tested bad, so I end up leaving the battery place with a new 12 volt deep cycle battery. The float on this new equipment is set 4" higher than the float on the 110 volt submersible pump, so it will only come on if the electricity goes out. (I have two extra 110 volt sump pumps setting in my storage room). The battery powered sump pump comes with its own trickle charger that you leave plugged in all the time to keep the battery at full power. Theory is, if the electricity goes out in the middle of the night, the battery powered pump will come on when the water starts to rise, the alarm will wake my wife up, who will then in turn torture me until I wake up, then I will fumble around in the dark until I have my generator fired up. I bought a new 12 ga. 50 foot extension cord to get from the generator (outside of course) to the 110 volt sump pump in the basement. I bought a new super duper flashlight that cost more money than the first car I bought. Tomorrow, just for giggles, I will use my new generator and new extension cord to power the 110 volt submersible pump and see if it all works in the daylight. Then I will put everything away and hope to never have to think about it again until next year. The floods haven't started here yet, but I expect the weather to turn to consistently above zero temperatures sometime in the next two weeks, and then watch out!!!--If I get a flooded basement now, I am going to stock it with pirhannas and throw myself in amongst them!!!

 

[gus]

Hi Brian,
Take care and be prepared.

Over here the 1 1/2 month dry spell broke with heavy island wide showers and some low lying parts flash flooded. All the brown patches will go green in next three days. Met.Station forecasted thunderstorms for this whole week. But the El Nino effect stays for this year and this means less rain.

Fishing was good during the dry spell.

 

[Brian Rupnow]

It seems like I may have dodged a bullet this year. The big melt has taken place in a very orderly fashion so far, with about two weeks of +5 to +8 C during the day, and just below freezing at night. The last two days have been up to about 15C (60F) thru the day and not quite down to freezing at night. The snow is gone off my roof, and there are patches of grass beginning to peek through my lawn in places. There is still about 12" of snow in the woods, but the woods are far enough away from my basement that the snow there doesn't have much effect on my basement. Last year there was a lot of flooding around this area, but in large part that was the result of a very heavy downpour of rain, higher temperatures, and a 5 hour electrical power outage. I have been (and still am) prepared though. The generator is full of gasoline, everything is ready to "plug in and go", all my flashlights have new batteries, and the battery powered back-up sump pump has a beeper on it loud enough to wake the dead if the main electric power goes out and the water rises high enough in the sump hole to activate the back up pump. Good wife has been instructed that if she hears anything beeping in the night to wake me up (if I'm not awake all ready). I even put a new pull-rope on the electric garage door to disengage the power lift, so that if everything goes to crap in the middle of the night I'll be able to get the garage door open so as not to die of CO2 poisoning. The weatherman is calling for rain here sometime over the next 48 hours, but I don't think its going to be an exceptionally heavy rain.---Brian

 

[robcas631]

Brian,

How is your house heated? Diesel or as we say here oil?