General Discussion

They should stick to the weather and leave the geology to people who understand it.

In Oklahoma, we have a high water table. The only people I ever knew to have a basement were my grandparents, and they had a tremendous amount of trouble with it. It was always leaking, and they were always having it worked on and hoping it would be fixed, and invariably it would leak again.

My understanding is that the red clay that makes up much of Oklahoma's soil does not hold water in the same way loamier soil does. As the clay gets wet and dries and gets wet and dries, the effect it has on a basement wall is to eventually cause it to crack. And then, because of the high water table, the leak will begin. Then mold grows.

I'd be happy to post a photo of the chair I inherited when my grandmother died. It was sitting in her basement, and you can see the water rings along the legs from the times the basement flooded.

Google for "Oklahoma basement dynamite" and the entries you'll see on the web with the rock explanation are all from the last couple of days - since the national news started saying it. I think it's an explanation that Oklahomans had never heard before. Simply google Oklahoma basements and you'll find many older articles supporting the water table / red clay reason.