Lackawanna's housing was built for steel workers and much of it is still standing, which means small older homes with basements that were never meant to be finished and foundations that predate any modern moisture barrier.
Those basements are the whole story here. They take water at the wall rather than through a pipe, and the owners who finished them in later decades find that out during a thaw.
What we deal with in Lackawanna basements
Seepage through the foundation wall is the recurring call, and it is worst when frozen ground sheds meltwater rather than absorbing it. The water arrives at the footing and comes through the joint where the wall meets the floor.
Being close to the lake adds wind-driven rain off the water, which finds openings on the exposed side of a building that the sheltered side never sees.
Water comes in where the basement wall meets the floor.
That is the cove joint, and it is the most common entry point in a foundation of this age. It means hydrostatic pressure outside rather than a plumbing failure, so the fix starts with drainage rather than sealant.
Can a finished basement be dried, or does it come out?
Depends on how long it sat and what the water was. Paneling and carpet over a slab hold moisture against the floor, so those usually come out even when the framing can be saved.