My house is built on a north facing side of a hill. The back yard slopes from the neighbors house to the back of my house and the front yard slops down to the street. SO any rain we get in the town I usually have water in my basement unless it has been dry for awhile. But with the ground water table being very high due to the amount of precipitation we have gotten this year any rain we get just runs off. The ground can not hold anymore as is evidence with that dam breaking.