Description
We experienced heavy tropical rain on 08/22/21. Our home is located in sort of a dip on Virginia Ave. During heavy rain, the 2 storm drains/ sewer on the street in front of the house are inadequate to handle the incoming water flow from both sides of the street. Therefore, over the last 15 years water accumulates during heavy rain in front of the house up to about 5 feet. This past Sunday (08/22/21), the extreme rain and the surge of waterflow from both sides of the street flooded the area in front of the house. Over 6 feet of water accumulated and came over the retaining wall into the basement. Our tenants were trapped inside the basement that has an outdoor walk-out and were unable to open the storm door and the inside door due to the influx of water. Over 3 feet of water surged into the basement from the street. I was able to break the storm door with a hammer and the inside door then rescue the elderly disabled tenants. I had called emergency services, but the FDNY only showed up 2 hours after the initial call.
Over the past 15 years we have claimed total loss on 3 cars in addition to the surrounding neighbors. This past Sunday one of our vehicles were lost again due to the flooding. We have contacted 311 and Environmental Protection over the last 10 years whom have done nothing at all to mitigate this issue. EPA responded 2 days after and informed us that absolutely nothing will be done for future mitigation. This past Sunday we suffered $20,000 to $50,000 worth of damages. The home insurance is not covering any damages as the flood was caused by inadequate storm drains/ sewer on the street which lead to over 6 feet of water accumulating in front of the house (please see the attached pictures of the residence).
We cannot reside in the area if the City of New York does not engineer a solution for this issue as it has been occurring for over 15 years. Our lives and livelihood are always at risk due to the inaction of the City officials and incompetence by the responsible parties.
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3 Comments
Staten Island, NY (Registered User)
Acknowledged DLopez (Registered User)
DLopez (Registered User)
Good afternoon,
We spoke with the Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) and they informed us that you may be entitled to reimbursement (for damages caused by Henri) from the City’s Comptroller’s office. In order to qualify, you must submit a claim within the 90-day timeframe given.
As for the flooding issue itself, DEP stated that the storm sewers were overtaxed by the amount of rainfall experienced during Henri. The sewer mains are built to intake a certain amount of rain per hour and Henri exceeded this amount. DEP’s BWSO (Bureau of Water and Sewer Operations) unit recorded all 311 calls for “Virginia Ave.” during Henri-- but were unable to do much, due to the limitations of our current infrastructure. To mitigate flooding in the future, capital projects (that increase the capacity of storm sewers) are required. We were not told whether such capital projects are in the works or not, but DEP has flagged “Virginia Ave.” for further investigation with the BWSO.
As always, if you have any questions or concerns, you may comment here. And we will respond as soon as possible.