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…
[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 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.
11.49 AM;
What in the world are you talking about?? The maintenance and upgrade of the sewers are a state and local responsibility. NY’ers pay one of the highest local taxes in the country.
Before you reach for my wallet again, I strongly suggest that you examine how our existing money is spent. Here’s one fact you can chew on: NYS spends DOUBLE what California spends on Medicare, even though their population is double ours. Why is this so? Because of the union dollars that pay for the best lobbyists money can buy in Albany. Our tax dollars go to prop up a bloated medical system, rather than taking care of mundane items like sewers. Every politician out there loves to add on health-care goodies at the texpayers’ expense. When was the last time you saw a politician jockeying to get on TV demanding an upgrade to the sewers? Not sexy for them. Won’t pay for any union junkets. We desperately need a guy like Bloomberg to clean up Albany.
Please spare us your platitudes.
Benson
No more stadiums, no more developer handouts.
FIX THE INFRASTRUCTURE NOW.
Repair? Clogs? I thought the city stopped dumping storm runoff directly into the rivers recently. Does anyone know if that is true? It isn’t just sewer capacity, they actually backup into your basements now. That has never happened until recently and now it i sahppaning everywhere. It isn’t global warming you tree hugging yahoos. Any moderate rain over a short period of time gets the sewers backing up.
12:07,
Unfortunately, we in NYC pay more in Federal and State taxes than we get back. But, I also blame our elected officials: both Democratic AND Republican. I agree with 11:49, we seriously need to maintain/build/invest in our infrastructure.
Yeah seriously 11:49 what are you talking about?
Clearly you want to wedge in your NATIONAL political views here – but sewers are a decidedly local issue and locally we really havent had taxes cut at all and there is no reason based on tax rates that our sewers shouldnt be state-of-the-art.
11:49,
were you born last week?
do you really believe that we do not pay enough taxes in NYC to keep the sewers in good repair?
What percentage of my salary do you really think the politicians need to fix our plumbing?
When the going gets tough, the rich get going. To Dubai.
There are two things to blame and they are things that won’t change or improve anytime soon: 1) geography and an area’s particular vulnerability to flood, and 2) our inadequate, neglected, antiquated sewers.
Something this country’s voters never seem to figure out — you can’t cut taxes AND keep infrastructure updated. Just a little thing the Midwest is learning, between the Minneapolis bridge collapse and now all the failure of levees. Not to mention the failure of levees in New Orleans.
Republicans. Penny wise pound foolish. A small portion of the population saves a few bucks, but soon the entire country will have to take on even more debt on top of the huge Iraq war debt, to fix what’s been neglected. Oh and how exactly is that patriotic? Since they claim to own the “Patriot” brand, flag lapel pin and all. They should all be tried for treason.
Looks like Venice.