h wrote in message

Ok, what am I missing? How can a water heater flood the kitchen when the
water heater is in the basement and the kitchen is one floor up? How many
people don't have full basements? Is it really a house if there isn't a
full basement? Certainly not in upstate NY. I don't even think it's legal
to not have a basement here.

What are you missing? An incredible amount of geography and housing
information. There are hundreds of thousands, probably millions of homes
that have no basement. Pretty much every house in Florida, for instance.
Thousands of homes in Nevada, CA, New Mexico.

Ask how many people have water heaters in their garage too.