Washington Township residents hit by repeated flooding
Washington Township residents are seeking solutions after flooding from heavy rains on the Fourth of July left many of them with thousands of dollars in damages.
More than 50 homes have notified the township of problems, particularly in the area of Linn Drive, said James Tamasy, who serves as solicitor for both the township board and municipal authority.
Regina and Rich Planey, who live on Linn Drive, said they suffered more than $75,000 in damages, both from stormwater runoff and sewage backing up into the home. Flood waters were five-and-a-half feet high in the downstairs of their ranch homes, Regina Planey said. The damage took out everything in their downstairs, which included a laundry room, a cedar closet and a bathroom.
“We still have not yet made it out to buy a new washer and dryer, because we’re relocating that upstairs to the main floor,” he said. “We lost everything.”
The Planeys and other residents who attended a Washington Township Municipal Authority meeting last week said they have had repeated issues with stormwater after heavy rains.
Members of the Washington Township Municipal Authority met informally with township supervisors on July 21 to discuss a possible remediation system for stormwater problems, starting with Linn Drive.
Tamasy said early indicators are that the stormwater system needs to be upgraded to handle the volume of water coming into the system during major storm events.
Many older homes were never hooked into the sewer system, instead having a French drain in the foundation that led back into a nearby mine, said Municipal Authority Chair Dan Reppert. With the runoff, that mine is now backflowing onto people’s property, he said.
“We’re more than willing to help them as far as camera their lines and see if they need a bigger line or if it’s blocked up,” he said. “As far as our sewage, after that rain occurred, within two or three hours we were back down to normal again. So it tells me my lines were fine. It’s the water dumping into us that caused this problem. It may never happen again. It may happen in March. That’s where we’re at because we have no proper drainage in this township.”
Discussions at the joint meeting included how large a remediation system would be needed, Tamasy said.
Also at issue is how to pay for any eventual work, which Tamasy said could reach “into the millions.” Work would potentially have to be done in phases, Tamasy said.
Early talks looked at possible state grants, and whether the township would be able to raise money for matching funds through tax increases. The township board would be talking with the engineer to look at what grants are available.
“Hopefully we’re going to have a game plan ready to go within the next 60 days, so we know what grants to target and what kind of matching funds we would need to have, and on top of that, hopefully what the system looks like, where we’re going to target it, where water would be discharged to,” Tamasy said.
Cory Cavinee, president of the Fayette County Board of Realtors, said while most homeowners’ insurance policies don’t cover flooding, residents can buy separate flood insurance policies.
“That’s just a decision that should be made by consulting with their insurance agent, just the check-in to the cost of additional coverages, because as we are aware, the property doesn’t have to be in a flood zone to experience issues whenever there’s a substantial amount of rain,” he said.
Tamasy encouraged residents to submit estimates of their monetary damages to the township along with a list of what property was damaged, which could assist in being able to receive grant funding.
Without that level of detail, Tamasy said, it’s more difficult for the township to submit a claim to receive funding from the state, which could potentially compensate homeowners.
“The more people that provide us estimates is very helpful, and when they see these, when they see that there’s a significant amount of monetary damage, hopefully they’re going to say, “OK, disaster relief funds need to go to this municipality,'” he said.
Residents said they were submitting claims, but were skeptical it would lead to anything.
Dave Halinka said he’s gotten about 2 inches of water in his basement from runoff after the July 4 storms. It took out his hot water tank, massage chair and refrigerator, costing him about $4,000 in damages. He’d come to the Municipal Authority meeting after he said he didn’t get answers at an earlier meeting of the supervisors, who handle the water. The interconnected nature of the problems could make them hard to untangle, he said.
“You get so much rain runoff, it’s got nowhere to go,” he said. “It ends up in the sewage, and then it backs it up, and one causes the other. So let’s see what happens.”