The first time your basement floods, you go out the next day and get a pump. You set the pump up right where the flooding was worst. Maybe you grab a garden hose from the backyard and test the pump out, then put the hose back where you found it, not totally happy to be leaving the pump without one but not totally convinced that you need to buy a dedicated hose either. But you leave the pump plugged in, and are happy to have a solution mostly ready for the next time it rains really hard.