One cannot be over-zealous in this, for a flooded or even damp cellar is always a hazard.  Under no circumstances attempt to turn on electric lights if you are standing where it is wet or damp.  Ninety-nine times out of a hundred all that can happen is a mild electric shock but there is always the one chance in thousands that by so doing you may be your own electrocutioner.  It is safest to have all cellar lights controlled by one or more switches at the head of the cellar stairs; but if there is a light that must be turned on in the cellar itself, leave it alone under conditions of standing water and be sure the fault is rectified before the next heavy rain can cause a repetition.

Just as storms can make trouble below stairs, roof and eaves may develop faults.  Where the roof is of wooden shingles, one of the usual causes of leaks is a cracked shingle.  When this chances to be directly above a slight space left in laying the roof for expansion between the shingles of the next course, rain, instead of flowing off the roof, runs through this crack and wet plaster results.  This does not mean that the roof must be re-laid if otherwise tight and sound.  Get a sheet of roofing tin or copper, locate the troublesome crack, and gently insert a piece of the sheet metal, trimmed to the right size, beneath the cracked shingle.  Properly done, you should not find it necessary to nail the piece of sheet metal because the shingles themselves will hold it in place.  While making this repair, be careful not to walk on the roof more than is absolutely necessary.  Your weight and the pressure of your feet may crack other shingles.  It is better to work from a ladder.  This should have a large iron hook that will catch on the ridgeboard and keep it from slipping.  It also distributes the weight of the man making the repair.

Sometimes eaves, instead of providing drainage and conducting rain from the roof to ground, work in the reverse.  The dampened plaster of the interior side walls soon betrays this.  When these spots appear it is probable that the opening where the down-spout joins the eaves-trough is clogged with leaves and small twigs.  Remove this plug that has gradually accumulated round the strainer and once more rain water will flow merrily and noisily down the spout.  Also, in winters of unusually heavy snowfalls and cold weather, if the eaves-troughs are hung too close to the edge of the roof or have not sufficient slope for rapid drainage, the snow on the roof melts, drips to the eaves-trough, and freezes before it can flow away.  Eventually some of this moisture creeps beneath the shingles and makes ugly damp patches on the plaster beneath.  Immediate relief can be had by mounting a ladder, clearing the trough of the ice, and thawing the frozen down-spout with salt and kettles of hot water.  Later, the permanent remedy is to have a practical roofer rehang and adjust the eaves-troughs.