Tenant deny causing damage to basement

[Tin Nguyen]

Hello,

Last Friday, there was a rain storm in the state of VA and our rental property was damaged. The tenant called and said that the basement has water flowing in through the window and the basement is wet. We came over and noticed that the gutter drain pipe was pointed towards the window in question.

Previously, the drain pipe was placed by us on a stone slab, kept together with two red bricks so that the tenant would notice. When we arrived, the drain pipe was pointed towards the basement window and the bricks were neatly stored under the deck's stairs. When I asked the tenant about it, she said nonchalantly that she must've moved it when mowing the lawn.

The tenant is now denying that it's her fault and the storm must've caused the damage in the house. However, this rain was nothing compared to the one two weeks ago. Rain storm on July 27th was about 3.5 inches of rainfall, while this rain storm recorded only about .7 inches. For the 3 years our family lived in that home, we have never experienced something like this. The house is located on top of a hill and we even reinforced the back fences to prevent stuff like this.

Currently we have people drying out the basement. The carpet will have to go. How can we approach this situation? The tenant is denying everything to avoid paying for the damage

Thank you

Here are some pictures 

https://imgur.com/a/8CiGd