Mike Stavrou, Mullumbimby
If you wish you had a submersible water pump, but don’t, like I did yesterday, you can make one with a garden hose. As we all know too well, water follows gravity.
Take a normal garden hose and fill it with water by removing any gun or nozzle and connector at its output, holding it high, and turning the tap on for 20 seconds.
Watch it flow and when no more air bubbles expel you’re good to turn off the tap and quickly press your thumb over the opening of the hose to prevent any air entering or water escaping. Now, with your thumb firmly sealing the end of the hose, wander over to the tap and flick the other end of the hose off the tap. Immediately lift both ends of the hose to stay level with each other to keep all the water still in the hose. (Best to remove its connector to plug this end too.) Now comes the fun part. A friend can make this easier, but the idea now is to travel to the location of the flooded area, under the house or garage etc, and have your friend hold one end of the hose near the pool that needs draining. You now run down hill to find any place outside that is lower than the bottom of the pool of water that needs to be eliminated. On the count of three – shout 1, 2, 3, – you both dump your end of the hose. Your friend jams it into the water while you simultaneously drop it to the ground. The weight of the water in the hose will create a powerful suction drawing the unwanted pool into the hose and, because there is no air in the hose, will continue sucking the water from the pool until the water level drops exposing the hose to air. That is why it’s important to now move the submerged end of the hose to the deepest part of the pool so that it drains completely. Good luck!
PS Oh, I almost forgot; Two parallel hoses will drain twice as much water in half the time! And you thought this rain sucked. The longer the hose – the greater the suction. When you place your finger lightly over the inlet of the sucking hose you’ll feel a vacuum stronger than a vacuum cleaner to assure you it’s working.
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