AURORA, Colo. (KDVR) – FOX31 is hearing from a number of viewers who have said their basements flooded during last week’s deluge.
One of those homes belongs to Jodie Mooney, who lives in the Mission Viejo subdivision not far from the Cherry Creek Reservoir in Aurora.
At her home, FOX31 found fans that have been running constantly to dry out the basement.
Mooney said the basement began to flood late last week when the rain just wouldn’t stop.
“When I first noticed, it was about 4 a.m., and I woke up. And I actually thought I spilled my water,” Mooney said.
There were inches of water that had been covering her basement floor.
“I just stepped down and it was like my heart just started beating. I woke up my husband and the first thing I did was turn the electricity off,” Mooney said.
She quickly realized it was worse than she thought.
“I took a few more steps and I realized it was just all flooded. The entire basement.” Mooney said.
The family used a shop vac to pump water out for 10 hours, and Mooney’s husband carried what seemed like more than a hundred buckets up the stairs and dumped them outside.
“[Water] was coming from every direction,” Mooney said.
On top of what was an estimated six inches of rain, there was hail the size of 50-cent pieces piled up outside which also melted and seeped into the ground.
No water got in through the windows — the soil was so saturated, it just made its way in through walls and the floor.
There are many ways water can come into a house, Groundworks Colorado Certified Field Inspector Rick Donohoe said.
“The most common place for water to come in is at the floor wall joint, where the concrete floor meets the wall of the foundation,” Donohoe said.
The Mooneys do not yet know for sure how the water got into their basement. The number one goal, for now, is to clean up.
Groundworks Colorado said they are getting hundreds of calls for flooded basements because of last week’s rains.
The Mooneys also said about six other homes in their neighborhood experienced the same kind of flooding.
