Troy, Tipp City cleaning up after storm

May 23--Residents, municipal workers and emergency personnel in Troy and Tipp City have days of cleanup ahead following the severe that swept through the region Wednesday, causing major flooding.

Tipp City Public Library, located at 11 East Main Street, will be closed at least until Tuesday because of significant flooding in the basement.

The storm caused a sewage backup and about two inches of standing water in the library basement, said Library Director Anthony Orsini.

The teen collection, meeting room, library supplies and technology are all housed in the basement.

A small portion of the teen book collection will be lost along with some furniture, shelving and supplies, Orsini said. The staff was able to reach servers and other technology equipment before any damage occured, he said.

An estimate on the cost of damages is not available.

Franklin and Park streets were closed on Thursday after a sinkhole, almost the same width as the street and six feet deep, opened on Fourth Street as a result of flooding from the storm.

In Troy, a gas line near Troy High School was damaged after Staunton Road buckled Thursday morning, causing police to close the road for hours.

"We had a couple, three feet, of water standing on the road," Troy Police Sgt. Jeff Kunkleman told the Dayton Daily News.

Kunkleman believed the heavy rain led to the road buckling.

Officers closed Staunton between North Market and Adams streets for nearly 12 hours while Vectren repair crews worked to fix the steel service line, which provides natural gas to Troy High School, said Chase Kelley, spokesperson for Vectren.

The damaged line required Vectren to temporarily cease gas service to the high school around 1:30 a.m., which left Troy City Schools Superintendent Eric Herman scrambling to come up with an alternative plan to feed students.

"Our high school feeds our other buildings, so our other buildings get food prepared at the high school and we ship it out," Herman said.

The service line provides gas for some of the kitchen utilities, so Herman said the school had to prepare a different lunch menu for students in the district.

Herman said the gas line wasn't the other issue the Miami County school district had to confront.

"Just about all of our buildings had some type of water situation," Herman said.

According to Vectren, approximately 40 other customers were without natural gas in Miami County Thursday as a result of flooding.

Classes at Troy City Schools were not interrupted by the gas leak.

While classes continued in the city, several residents were still dealing with flooded homes.

Jerry Alvarado, a Troy resident who has lived in the area for almost a decade, said he was waiting for insurance adjusters to let him know the next step to replace or repair his cars and house.

"As soon as I realized I couldn't start my cars, I had to get a hold of my family and get them to higher ground," he said.

Alvarado said he was able to grab of couple of things before he was forced to evacuate. He had to wait till Thursday to go back and look at his home.

"It's been surreal," he said.

The water that surrounded his house causing foundation damage started to recede by the next day, he said.

"The one silver lining is everybody is safe," Alvarado said. "That's all that matters."

Writer Nancy Bowman contributed to this report.

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