I live in Maine, where we get a lot of snow. I mean, a lot. Nor'easters repeatedly dump 20 inches of the stuff on us each winter. In the spring, this snow melts, resulting in a lot of freed up water.
Now, I've lived in the same house for 10 years, and the basement was always a great place to be. It was warm in the winter and cool in the summer. We ran coax cable down there and got cable TV and broadband internet. We put the Playstation and the computers down there. Needless to say, I spent most of my free time there doing various stuff.
Two years ago, though, the store at the top of my street - Maine Paint Service - went out of business. Super Evil Corporate Mega-Giant Ride Aid bought the vacant lot and proceeded to construct a large Rite Aid SuperStore Outlet there, right near the top of the street. In order to accomplish this, they did a lot of gravel-moving, dynamite-style, to get rid of the old building and level out the terrain.
Granted, this is just a theory, but it is a theory shared by most of the other residents on my street. The blasting done by the construction crew inadvertently dislodged and cracked the water table beneath my street. I remember this clearly, because my sister and I had just finished cleaning and rearranging the computer/TV/video games room, and then the next day, there was a huge rain storm.
The basement flooded.
My dad was forced to tear up everything and stash it on shelves and other elevated storage spaces. The carpeting that once resided in the room is gone now, replaced by a mere throw rug, and the TV now rests on top of a moving, metal rack. All the wooden cabinets are placed on top of metal coasters to keep them from rotting because of flood water.
Two days ago, we had another huge rainstorm. Biggest since the water table genocide. Compound that with 4+ feet of snow melting, and the basement was a veritable swamp. Only the trusty sump pump kept the water at bay. My dad and I did the math, and with just the water flooding in through the standpipe, we had well over 3000 gallons of water pass through the basement.
I've half-jokingly told my parents to consider a class-action suit against Rite Aid, in conjunction with all the other residents of this street (who coincidentally also had their basements mysteriously begin to flood after the construction of the Rite Aid store). I mean, have you ever heard of anyone LOSING a class-action suit?
For now, though, I must be content in revealing this evil to the noders of E2, that they might be spared the same fate I have suffered at the hands of the Evil Empire of Rite Aid.