Matt and Lilith Smith had a good home and three darling daughters aged 4, 6, and 9 respectively. They also had living with them, Matt\'s dear old dad, Chuck, who slept in the basement. Everything was ok with the Smith household till the night a flooded basement entered their lives.

It was during the Halloween season when rains poured heavily for most part of the day and night. Chuck, who was sleeping in the basement, was awakened and noticed water coming through the small cracks of the foundation walls in the middle of the night. \"Matt should have caulked them cracks like I told him to.\" Chuck mumbled to himself before climbing up the stairs to continue his sleep on the not-so-comfortable sofa in the living room. As Chuck continued to sleep, he never realized that the continuous downpour would cause a flooded basement in the morning.

\"Daddy, Come quick! Everything\'s Ruined!\" cried Hannah, aged 9. She woke up early to check on her Halloween costume that was stored in a cardboard box just beside the washing machine. Instead, she saw all the other cardboard boxes either floating or half submerged in the flooded basement which now looks more like an indoor wading pool. As Matt, Lilith and Chuck made their way to Hannah and to look at the flooded basement, Lilith realized that her decision of saving a few dollars extra by buying cardboard boxes instead of the plastic ones was not a good decision after all. Had she known that they are going to have a flooded basement from time to time, she would have protected her precious family photos, documents and memorabilia better.

\"Do not go down there, Matt!\" cried Chuck. \"Not just yet. We need to make sure the main switch is turned off first.\"

Matt, fully aware of the sound wisdom that Chuck has imparted, made his way to the main switch and turned it off before returning to the flooded basement. As the three adults of the family, wade through the waters of their flooded basement, they were relieved that they turned the main electricity off when they noticed that most of the electrical outlets were submerged in the basement\'s flood waters.

\"Nice work guys!\" Lilith announced after six hours of removing water and drying the basement. \"It sure was nice of our neighbor Patrick to lend us his pedestal-type sump pump. It sure did make drying this flooded basement easier.\" Chuck and Matt nodded in agreement.

\"However, we are still not yet done with this.\" Lilith added. As a science teacher by profession, Lilith knows too well that molds and mildew can grow on damp and moist conditions and that these fungi can release spores that can cause respiratory problems such as chronic obstructive pulmonary disorder and asthma. \"We still need to clean our recently flooded basement thoroughly with bleach and water.\"

So the three of them got on their hands and knees again, pail and brushes in hand, and began scrubbing, and scrubbing and scrubbing.