Over the Weekend, a Flood on Carroll Street
[nggallery id=”22443″ template=galleryview] After the heavy rains on Saturday afternoon around three feet of rain collected on a section of Carroll Street, causing thousands of dollars in damages to a business and flooding several basements. The flooding was blamed on malfunctioning catch basins next to two developments that caused rainwater to cross 4th avenue and…
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After the heavy rains on Saturday afternoon around three feet of rain collected on a section of Carroll Street, causing thousands of dollars in damages to a business and flooding several basements. The flooding was blamed on malfunctioning catch basins next to two developments that caused rainwater to cross 4th avenue and settle on the western corner of Carroll. The water only pooled for about 15 minutes, but that was enough time to do serious damage. It’s not the first time Carroll between 3rd and 4th has seen a deluge over the past year: The street witnessed a similar event after the tornado last August, when a few feet of water took a couple hours to properly drain. “They said they took care of it, and here we go again,” said Joanne Amitrano, who manages three buildings on Carroll between 3rd and 4th avenues. Amitrano had been in contact with city officials and the DEP after the hurricane flood, and only last week DEP officials told her that the catch basins on the block were in working order—which they were, though the ones across 4th Avenue had evidently filled with construction debris, sending what Amitrano calls “a wave” across the street. The building on the corner of Carroll houses the new coffee shop Root Hill Cafe, and its owners had to hire a crew on Sunday to suck out water from the basement, where all its supplies are stored. Root Hill wasn’t open for business yesterday and its owners say they’re facing tens of thousands of dollars in damages. Small consolation: Sunday’s storms didn’t result in flooding.
Update: Gowanus Lounge has photos of flooding on 9th Street, closer to the canal, and Curbed shows the two waterlogged streets side by side.
Singin’ in the drain.
These storms are direct result of GODs wrath. Watch out NY… Change your homorsexural ways or perish! PRAISE GOD.
Install check valves into both your sewer and storm drains at the point they exit your home. This will prevent the sewer water from backing up into your home. They only open in one direction, OUT and close when water tries to come in.
The brooklyn sewers rot in my neighborhood too. Many areas that are lower lying can’t handle the heavy rainfalls- debris and clogs exacerbate the problem but are not the root. We ALWAYS HAVE street flooding in navy yard area…and Leticia JAMES doesn’t give a crap nor the DEP (which always insists everything is in working order – because the flood water recedes over a few hours) leaving behind broken boilers and moldy basements. She rots and local government doesn’t want to rip up streets and put in better sewer systems that can handle the quantity of water from heavy rainfalls unless people in your community come together and make a real stink…
Keep all of the development going. These sewers cannot handle the capacity of all of the development going on in the area. The sewers are way over capacity.
And all of the morons who think the catch basins are their personal garbage cans–What do you expect? People are just litter pigs-there is no doubt about it. The catch basins would not be so clogged up if people did not litter or throw garbage into them. I looked at my corner catchbasin today and saw a four foot flourescent bulb in it. How the h**l did that get in there??
It takes a lot to get me to put a complaint in writing, but I’ve had ENOUGH!
I live on 13th Street near 7th Avenue. I have observed that every day cars come barreling down the hill at excessive speeds, presumably trying to beet the lights and to avoid the traffic found on more popular streets. Many of these are limo drivers, but most are commuters.
At 35mph or more, it is IMPOSSIBLE to stop if a child suddenly runs out from the sidewalk or from behind a car. A little boy in my building was hit last year by one of these speeders. My 2 year old daughter and I were almost hit by one who didn’t make the light and ran it anyway.
It is becoming so bad that I am seriously thinking about investing in spike strips. Seriously, has anyone else noticed this?
Sincerely – terrified…
Happiness is a dry cellar.
Everyone has to pay taxes, if we didn’t pay our taxes the politicians wouldn’t be able to hire prostitutes and the whole economy would suffer.
Regardless of where you stand on the politics of the issue, I think it is apparent based on recent weather patterns that this is bound to happen again and with greater frequency.
Best thing to do is prepare as best you can with sewer cleaning, waterproofing, grading, drywells, etc. and hope for the best. Also invest in a good shop vac and plenty of bleach.