By MARY STEGMEIR, Courier Staff Writer

WATERLOO --- Billy Buckridge came home to an unpleasant surprise Friday night.

"I flew in from a trip to Phoenix at 7 o'clock and there was standing water in the basement," said Buckridge, marketing manager at College Square mall in Cedar Falls, who owns a home near the intersection of Julian and Downing avenues in Waterloo. "I pulled out like 36 gallons with my little 12-gallon shop vac, but I really wasn't making much headway."

So Buckridge called it a night. By Saturday morning, much of the water had subsided.

"What I believe happened was a drain was filled that normally empties out into either a city storm drain or empties out somewhere into the ground away from the house," he said. "The ground is saturated and there was nowhere for the water to go so it started backing up that drain."

It is a familiar story around certain corridors of the Cedar Valley. Last week's unrelenting rain showers led to soggy basements in several area neighborhoods. On Saturday morning, the National Weather Service in Des Moines issued a flood warning for the Cedar River. According to the report, at 11 a.m. Saturday in Waterloo the river was at 10.2 feet. The flood stage is 12 feet. Meteorologists expect the river to reach 12.4 feet by early this afternoon.

"A lot of sump pumps are probably working pretty hard," said Craig Gingrich, of Cedar Falls. "It's been rain, rain, rain."

Friday marked a day of record precipitation for Waterloo, with 2.29 inches of rain falling in the city. The previous record for most precipitation on April 18 occurred in 1909, when 1.79 inches of rain fell, according to National Weather Service data.

Gingrich, who lives on Cottage Row Road with his wife, Deborah, said he watched his neighbors across the street prepare for the worst.

"Their driveways tend to get covered (with water), so they've moved their cars," Gingrich said. "They don't want to take any chances."

After having a flooded basement in 1993, Gary and Karen Gillettethought their Waterloo home was prepared to handle heavy rains.

But Karen returned from the hospital Friday to find their overworked sump pump wasn't up to the task.

"It just quit on us," said Gary, who lives on Saratoga Drive near West High School. "But we got it back up working again, so it's all cleaned up."

Drier weather is expected Sunday and most of Monday. The grace period should allow the river to recede. Still, for the rest of this spring, Gary Gillette said, he plans to keep a close eye on the instrument.

"We're watching it now," he said. "That's the only reason we flooded in the first place."

Contact Mary Stegmeir at (319) 291-1482 or mary.stegmeir@wcfcourier.com.

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