My daughter is renting the basement apartment of a 100-year-old home. It's a fairly decent little place. Except for this. Can someone please tell me why there are cast iron pipes cut open, with air registers over them? Yesterday during the storm they were all full of flowing water. I checked a couple of them and they were all the same, cracked open cast iron pipe under the floor registers. What is going on here? I have more pictures if needed.
Edit: everyone, I'm grateful for all of the suggestions. Once she's finished unpacking, I'm going to do some investigating. It does not smell. .the water running thru it looks crystal clear. Well figure it out. Maybe.
I'm going with a custom floor drain into a storm drain and possibly the edit on this one... If they cut into sewer lines there is no way your not gonna notice. Not just sewer gases escaping but you would be infested with sewer flies. Put your ear to it and flush a toilet. That should confirm.
Oops. Meant as reply to darkmarx's edit of his own