FAIRVIEW PARK, Ohio — The torrential downpour that bestowed upon Northeast Ohio Wednesday night and Thursday morning spared no one in several west side communities.
Heavy rains busted one window out in Rocky River, filling up the basement with debris and water. In Bay Village, another basement filled with water, soaking everything in its path.
And in Fairview Park, flooded streets, tree lawns lined with garbage bags, and basements filled with water, and in some cases, sewage.
It's something residents say has been happening for years. Over the summer, dozens of homes flooded two or three times. That's exactly what happened to Andrew Krieger, who just moved into his Stanford Avenue home five weeks ago. He says he's already redone the basement once after their first flood. Now, he's getting ready to do it all over again.
"Once again, you know, we're gonna be moving on to our third basement here, because we just flooded out again. Like two to three inches of water, just the sewer back up. Everyone on the street's having the same problem it seems," Krieger told us.
Stacy Dinger has lived in Fairview for 23 years. On Thursday, she was cleaning up for the second time this summer.
"Our city's over a hundred years old. Other cities around us are over a hundred years old and they just can't take the water. And I get that. But even just speaking to the mayor's office, something has to be done. You know, we can't keep talking about the fact that we're having different weather patterns than we used to have. This isn't gonna change. We need to do something. And apparently other cities around us are gonna have to come together to do that too, because it's not just our city, but we go into other city systems," Dinger said. "We can't keep talking about the fact that we're having different weather patterns than we used to have. This isn't gonna change. We need to do something."
John Mandula, who is running for Fairview Park City Council, says the problem is an old sewer system that just can't keep up with the rains.
"The sewer system itself is too small to handle the storm water. And then when it does rain, it fills the sewer and it all backs up and people get sewage in their basements as well," Mandula said.
In a statement, Mayor Patrick J. Cooney said the following:
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