There was a basement flood at my home this afternoon. My husband and I caught it just in time, before we had property and appliance damage.

The setup: Power went out at 1:45 a.m. today because of a thunderstorm.

I’m working / on call this weekend. My husband has the weekend off and expected to run errands today. So we made quick plans as to who would do what, should the power still be off in the morning.

The power was still off when I woke up.

I went to The Monroe Evening News office to find out whether power was on there. Yes, there was electricity at the newspaper building in downtown Monroe. So it would be possible, if necessary, for me to put our groceries in the employee lunchroom refrigerator.

Then I went to Meijer. The store’s freezer was out of regular ice, and I didn’t have time to be shopping all over town. So I bought some (very pricey, as I learned!) dry ice. We packed refrigerator items in the ice chest, knowing that we had a few more hours before the freezer would go bad.

In the meantime, I had a story assignment to cover this morning and went to that appointment.

My husband took over the duties of babysitting a power-less house and making generator connections with handyman neighbor. By the time I was home from my appointment and another errand, we had generator power from the neighbor going both to our refrigerator and the sump pump.

We handled the power outage just fine until a downpour started about 2 p.m. today.

I went to the basement to get something, and saw water puddling on the floor near the basement egress window. If you’re not familiar with the egress-type window, it opens into a well with a ladder. This is intended for a person to escape from the basement during an emergency such as a fire. It’s a safety feature required by building code in many areas.

The generator extension cord that kept our sump pump running was looped through the basement window.

While this arrangement worked just fine two weeks ago, it failed today.

Nearly three inches of water had pooled into the well during the afternoon rain shower. The water was starting to come in from the window onto the floor, into the carpet that laid on that part of the floor, toward cardboard boxes and bookshelves with my craft supplies, toward a spare television set, toward my antique wicker desk, toward our extra dining room chairs …

You could have heard the panicky shouts from miles away.

I start hauling boxes and chairs upstairs, in hopes that nothing is getting ruined.

Husband starts fiddling with the window and electric cords.

We both run around the house and garage for any spare towels that are still available.

I get on the phone to DTE Energy and stayed on the line after the automated loop to speak to a customer service rep. I was polite to her and did not yell or scream. But DTE got the message from me personally that our basement was flooding and we did not appreciate a lengthy power outage so soon after a two-day power outage.

Husband finds another outdoor-rating extension cord and loops our sump pump electric connection through a first-floor window.

We keep mopping up the mess and moving stuff out of the way.

By the way, I’m doing all this while still wearing my “business clothes” of white short-sleeved top and black dress pants.

I went back to work about 4 p.m., which is where I am now. My husband called just as I walked into the newsroom to report the power was back on and he was working on cleanup chores.

Both of us are exhausted.