Residents continue with cleanup after heavy rain caused flooding
INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) — The cleanup continues after heavy rain over the weekend caused flooding on the northeast side of Indianapolis.
It happened near Ralston Avenue and 20th street Friday evening.
Some families told 24-Hour News 8 they are going through the flooding for the second or third time.
“I know my mom is disgusted she got to sit here and watch it, it’s like the third time literally,” said Trina Owens, flood victim. “We noticed the floor there’s a whole dip when we go to the bathroom from the middle room dining room. It’s sinking.”
Owens and her 10-year-old son, Tyler Reynolds, said they had a Friday night they will never forget.
“That water was almost taller than me and I almost fell,” said Reynolds. “I was standing with my mom saying ‘God can you help us and let the water go down’.”
A photo taken from the front porch of his grandmother’s house shows the extreme flooding on their block. He said they had to call the fire department to rescue a neighbor with an oxygen tank.
“When that fire truck came down all this water pushed over here,” he described.
Owens said the family felt hopeless as the water came rushing in.
“We just sit here and watch the water rise up we start putting things up, picking everything up from the floor, and sat through it and cleaned up the aftermath,” said Owens.
They spent all day cleaning up the water damage. Other neighbors like Markan Baxter are also going through the same thing.
“We couldn’t make it out the door so we had to come out the window,” said Markan Baxkter, homeowner. “Me and my two kids had to come out through the window.”
Baxter said she left home and came back to more devastating news. Someone broke into her house and took off with her entertainment center. She filed a police report.
“It doesn’t make sense that people would do that to somebody and stoop that low to do that when they see people going through a flood and having a crisis,” she said.
Baxter is glad her family made it out alive. She’s now demanding answers from the city.
“Water hits the electricity it can cause fire me and my kids could have died behind this,” said Baxter.
She wants to know why this keeps happening to families on her block.
“I just feel the city needs to take care of their responsibility and fix these streets and put some working drains in there,” she said. “People have kids, people lives are in danger.”
Baxter said she had a close call with the flooding last year.
“Last year when I was in the house, before I got out of the flood I heard the electricity popping when I was in the house,” she said. “I just made it out and I could have died then but by God’s grace I’m still here, me and my kids,” she said.
24-Hour News 8 reached out to the city’s Department of Public Works. A spokesperson told us in an email, DPW is aware of the drainage problem in that neighborhood.
The spokesperson said an engineering team will visit the area this week to look at possible improvements for drainage.