Storm & Flood Damage Recovery in Aurora, IL

Both, because they tell you about different mechanisms. The river responds to rainfall across a large upstream watershed and gives useful warning through gauge forecasts, which matters for property near the channel. Local storm drainage responds to what falls on the city within the hour, which is what puts water in basements away from the river. Knowing which of the two your address is exposed to determines which one to follow.

Because the mechanisms and the construction both differ. Near the channel, older houses on stone cellars take groundwater that rises with the river, and no pump arrangement changes that quickly. Out on the till plain, newer houses take water when the seasonal table rises after a storm, and there a functioning sump makes the difference. Advice that works in one part of the city is often irrelevant in the other.

Worth managing rather than sealing. A rubble or early poured wall has no continuous surface to coat, and sealants applied inside tend to relocate the water into the floor joint or the mortar above. What works is keeping roof and surface water away from the outside, then handling what still arrives with an interior perimeter drain and a sump. The realistic target is a cellar that stays usable, not one that is dry in every wet spring.