Rochester, N.Y. (WHAM) — Many basements in the Rochester area were drying out Wednesday after severe thunderstorm caused flooding for homeowners like Andrea Butler.
“Water issues are no joke,” Butler said.
She first heard an alarming noise coming from the basement of her Greece home Tuesday evening.
“We have a walk-up basement, and the water was coming up through the shower and underneath the toilet, and it just kept pooling through,” Butler said.
“We have a sub-basement that used to be a pool, and I think there is about two feet of water maybe in that,” she added.
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Butler called Fazio Plumbing, which responded Wednesday morning and found the sump pump in the sub-basement.
“The water was knee high,” said owner Frank Fazio. “I said, ‘Hey, the fire department can pump that out and then I can get down in there and we’ll go through and fix everything.'”
“It was right about to that third step up from the bottom, so probably about three feet of water,” he added.
Butler said her home backs up to a wetland, and the water has since receded a bit.
“The firefighters came and pumped out our indoor pool that we don’t use, and that was 2,000 gallons of water, they thought, so a lot of water,” Butler said.
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Elsewhere, Chief Adam Leggett said the Brockport Fire District was busy responding to an influx of calls for flooded basements and roads.
“If we can get a pump down in the sump hole, we can pump it down all the way,” he said. “But if the floodwaters are still coming in as soon as we leave, it’s just coming right back in. The saving grace for this event has been that there hasn’t been a lot of wind.”
Leggett said there is usually a fair amount of spring flooding each year, but not to the extent seen Wednesday.
“This event has been just the sheer amount of water in a very short amount of time.”
