alt Hacker NewsIn firefighting it is quite common to take in surface water using a submersible pump which is hydraulically driven by an engine on land - like the fire truck or a dedicated diesel. See for example [0][1]. Doing it this way means you aren't limited by elevation and don't need to carry special suction hoses for water intake.
It makes me wonder if anyone is paranoid enough to do the same for highrise fuel pumps: sure, the basement may flood, but when the pump in there is designed to flood it's a lot less of a problem! Place the actual power source several floors up, where flooding is impossible outside a The Day After Tomorrow-esque civilization-ending catastrophe and you should be fine.