Emergency learn me: Basement sealing

I'm sitting in the kitchen attempting to make tomorrow's lunch when I am alerted to the fact that there is running water in the basement.

We have had some heavy rains today, and this came at the tail end of a heavy thunderstorm.

The water was actually a stream that sprayed away from the wall before I thought to take a pic.

This leak is directly under a concrete patio.  There are similar leaks elsewhere in the basement, including the half that is a finished bedroom.

Aside from the obvious question of why this never happened before, is there going to be a GRMable way of sealing the basement that does not involve digging up the outside?

In reply to Pete. (l33t FS) :

Nope. 

Rather than worry about sealing it, focus on finding the source of the problem.
 

Clogged gutters? Patio settling? Grade issues? Water table?

They've all got different solutions. 

That is my thought.  The only thing that has really changed since the last time it rained this heavily before the ground thawed out, was that a big tree on the other side of the house was removed after its roots destroyed the sewer line between the house and the street.

The stream in multiple locations makes me think there is some pressure. Like the water level outside the wall  is higher than the floor.

You can't seal a basement wall from the inside. 
 

I would double check the gutters, and extend the downspouts away from the house.  Make sure there are no low spots in the grading. 
 

Then start saving up to seal it properly from the outside, and add footing drains. 

I'll add that sealing from the inside is a bad idea that rarely ever works.

Start with the water as far away as possible from the foundation and then add levels of protection to the foundation wall is the best way really.

We had a similar situation when we moved in. Little bit of water trickle across the concrete basement floor during a heavy rain. Our basement/crawlspace is concrete block with some plastic vapor barrier on the interior, and a poured floor on most of it, and gravel on some of the rest. Re-routing the downspouts away from the foundation and cleaning the gutters helped a TON. Spend some time outside during the next rain, watch where the water goes, and you'll figure it out too. 

It also turns out there was already a footing drain along the entire perimeter inside the basement, and it discharged through a buried pipe to the street. I was able to uncover part of the drain, look through a hole in it, and see standing water that wasn't draining out. I ran a water jet hose all the way up the discharge pipe until I could hear it under the basement, taking out a few clogs along the way. This helped a lot with drainage and haven't seen water resurface since then. 

Even though our footing drain works, it's still best practice to keep the water out in the first place. Ideally I would like to dig and seal the foundation exterior, but that's a big $ job. I would only install a sump pit as a last resort, after waterproofing the exterior, but they are very common in high water table areas and would definitely help relieve the pressure. I just don't like the idea of poking a hole in a boat and relying on a pump to keep it afloat. 

More interesting info: Most of the people I work with were late for work today because they were dealing with flooded basements.

Apparently there was flooding deep enough on I-90 about a quarter mile from me that they had to send people out in boats to rescue stranded drivers.  They stopped before the road got impassable and then the water level kept rising and trapped them.