Silly question related to electricity and flooding

[frazwood]

We bought a lake cabin a couple of years ago...

The former owner of this lake cabin was an amateur electrician and he did a lot of curious wiring projects (most of them I have removed and/or fixed).

One of his wiring projects was to run a wire from the panel.. outside the house... underground to the lake... where he had mounted a receptacle on an old tree stump. The receptacle worked, but I removed it because I didn't think that it was safe and I didn't plan on using it (I actually removed the entire circuit).

With all of the rain recently, the lake level has risen... to the point where that receptacle, if I had left it, would be underwater right now.

What would have happened if that receptacle was still hot? (and before you ask, no... it wasn't ground-fault protected)

[Tator2k]

Would have just tripped the breaker.

[SkunkedAgain]

Assuming that he was using breakers.

[Surface Tension]

For reasons like that, is why they invented GFCI receptacles.

I have an extension cord I made up for outdoor use with a GFCI receptacle. I take it from job to job because you don't know what your getting into.

[heavyduty]

Something like this could happen if the receptacle was under water and you were to make a path to ground. Could even happen if the GFI receptacle tripped and still had power in the box. Best bet is to do what you did and disconnect second chose would be to put a GFI breaker at the panel if the would be a chance of it flooding.

http://www.startribune.com/nation/160717815.html?c=y&page=all&prepage=1

[frazwood]

I disconnected the receptacle because the neighbors used it frequently and I never used it. Also, I don't trust much of the electrical work that this guy did, so unless I was sure that it was right... I pulled it and re-did it myself.

My wife was rather disappointed with your answers... she was guessing that we would have been electrocuting fish or something like that.

Thanks guys!