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Hard rains produce flooding in Girard, road washout in Braceville
Photo
Ray Clendenin stands next to a dresser in the basement of his father-in-law’s home in Girard on Thursday. The warped part of the dresser shows how high the water rose in the basement of the home early Tuesday — about 2 feet.
By Ed Runyan
GIRARD
City workers continue to check for blockages in sanitary sewers that caused water to back up into basements of homes on several streets Wednesday.
Jerry Lambert, Girard service director, said workers concentrated their efforts in the areas of North St. Clair Street, Washington Avenue and Ward Avenue.
They flushed lines, but water levels were still too high in some pipes Thursday morning to place cameras inside to look for blockages.
Hard rains Tuesday night and Wednesday morning left 3 feet of sewage water in the basement of one home and a couple of feet of water in others. In some cases, the water blew off manhole covers.
Lambert said officials believe they have an idea how to get the water flowing normally again and estimate they will have the problems fixed “in a few days.”
The same areas experienced flooding Aug. 2, he said.
Ray Clendenin, who was at his father-in-law’s house on St. Clair on Thursday repairing damage, said the drywall ought to be ripped out of the basement after two floods in less than a month, but he doubts the insurance will pay for that.
“How many times does the homeowner have to go through this?” he said. “Everything was repaired” from the last time, he said. “Now we have to do it again.”
Lambert said that when damage of this type occurs, the insurance companies for the homeowner and the city get together and work out division of costs to be paid.
Linda Beil, director of the Trumbull County Emergency Management Agency, said Girard appeared to have the largest concentration of flooding problems resulting from this week’s heavy rains.
The National Weather Service issued a flood warning for the Mahoning River in Leavittsburg for Thursday, saying the river was at 10.6 feet at 11 a.m. That level is enough to cause minor flooding, the service said. Flood stage is 10 feet.
The river level was expected to drop below flood stage later Thursday.
Meanwhile, a portion of state Route 5 in Braceville Township will remain closed for at least 10 days because of a washed out culvert just east of the Newton Falls exit on the Ohio Turnpike.
The damage was discovered Wednesday morning. By Thursday, there was a 4-foot wide hole in the road across three of the four lanes.
Brent Kovacs, public information officer for the Ohio Department of Transportation, District 4, said the length of time the road will be closed will be determined by the availability of materials to replace the culvert and fix the other damage.
The turnpike exit is still open but it is only accessible from the west, Kovacs said. The detour is state Route 534 north to state Route 82.