Good day to bake buns (actually every day is a good day!) I don't blame the chickens. Our animals don't like wind storms either especially when accompanied by driving rain. I can sympathize with you about the water in the basement. When we lived on the farm we had a new house built and somehow the field tile was broken and redirected to the basement. We didn't notice until the first heavy rains came and the water in the basement rose four feet in one night! We used a 4 inch irrigation pump to rain the water then found the contractor to rectify the problem! Furnace needed to be replaced. Everything else survived.