Yes, for the third time in a month, we’ve had water coming into our basement.

That severe thunderstorm and downpour in Monroe this afternoon triggered the problem.

We know what the cause is now – water is puddling in the side yard between our home and a neighbor’s home. Then the water goes down into our basement egress window. The window can hold back only so much, and the water starts coming into the basement.

I was at work, but my husband was home, when this storm hit. He started pulling basement boxes and furniture away from the window well, and threw a pile of towels on the floor to soak up whatever water was coming in.

The unfortunate coincidence is that today at lunch, we had a contractor out to the site to figure out a game plan. He’s going to work up a bid for regrading the dirt on that side of the house so the water drains out to the street instead of puddling up in the yard.

Obviously, we were still in big trouble this afternoon.

Temporary solution: we now have a small battery-operated pump in operation. I went straight from work to Lowe’s in Frenchtown Township, and bought this pump I saw a couple of weeks ago. It cost $38. I put in three D-sized batteries, hooked it up to a garden hose, and that water is now draining out to the front yard / street.

It is a really small pump … but anything we can do is better than nothing.

(Update about an hour later … yes the pump helped.)