DES MOINES, Iowa – What a difference a day makes.

Just 24 hours ago, parts of West Des Moines looked more like rivers than roads. Vine Street, in particular, was completely submerged after a sudden downpour turned quiet neighborhoods into flood zones.

By Monday, the waters had receded—but the damage was still being uncovered.

WHO 13’s Katie Kaplan spoke with one homeowner in the area who had been hard at work tearing out their damaged basement flooring. The homeowner said water had seeped in through the joints where the walls met the floor.

According to foundation specialist Jeremy Rogers, the General Manager of BAM Basements, he has been seeing that very issue in homes that have never had water issues before. The reason, he said, may lie in the region’s recent dry spells.

“The droughts have caused their own problems,” Rogers explained. “I tell people it’s like a sponge. You take a sponge, get it wet, and leave it out—it shrinks. That’s what the drought does to our soil. It shrinks and settles. But when the water returns, now it’s got all these cracked open avenues. Water’s going to go down there, soften the ground, and create more settlement.”

And it’s not just the ground that is shifting. Rogers said the combination of drought, rain, and poor drainage is creating dangerous pressure around home foundations.

“All the rainfall that we’ve had—you get a lot of soil saturation. That creates a lot of pressure on these walls,” he said. “You get a lot of hydrostatic pressure pushing up from underneath and creating leaks where the floor meets the wall. Add in things like bad gutters or negative grading, and the water intrusion just gets worse, especially after such a long drought.”

The combination of soil instability and heavy rain is a perfect storm for basement water damage. Rogers recommends that homeowners act fast—especially with more storms potentially on the way.

“Check your sump pump and make sure your downspouts are working,” he advised. “If you have cracks in your foundation, they’re not going to fix themselves. Call an expert before it becomes a bigger issue.”