More flooding hits South Bend

Sept. 10--SOUTH BEND -- Saturday morning, Kim Latson was driving to Opal Street to continue repairs on her home that was damaged by flooding a few weeks ago. When she arrived in the Jewell Woods neighborhood on the city's south side to find her street once again covered in water, she wanted to just turn around.

"It was disheartening,"she said.

South Bend received about 3 inches of rainfall between Friday night and Saturday morning, causing some areas to flood for a second time in less than a month. Marshall County was also affected by flooding, forcing the county's Emergency Agency to issue a travel advisory Saturday afternoon, along with an order for residents of North Township to boil their cooking and drinking water until they have a chance to have their wells tested for contamination.

For Jewell Woods, a ditch, residents say, is to blame for the community's flooding woes. By Saturday morning, there was about 10 inches of water on Opal Street, said John Antonucci, director of the St. Joseph County Emergency Management Agency. The water had receded from the street by about noon, but the water was still very high in the ditch.

Although not as bad as the historic rainfall that flooded the neighborhood with feet of water, damaging homes and requiring residents to be rescued by boat, continued flooding is causing Latson to question moving on with her home repairs.

She estimates the total damage and loss of her property to be around $50,000, and like most people, is getting little to nothing from homeowner's insurance. Four feet of water flooded the lower level of the Latson's home with about 6 inches rising into the main level.

Saturday, Latson and her husband wanted to hang drywall in the lower level, but arriving to flooded streets that made them change their plans. This time, water didn't make its way into the their house, but it made it well into the yard. Now the two are afraid their work will be for nothing.

"It's hard to not want to move forward because we want to get back in our house," she said, "but how quickly is this going to be damaged again?"

Now the shock and sadness is turning to anger that the problem isn't being fixed. Latson has joined others in her neighborhood to seek compensation. The group served Indiana Department of Transportation, St. Joseph County and the city of South Bend with a "notice of tort claim," a legally required step before a person can sue a body of government in Indiana.

According to their tort notice, neighborhood residents "suffered severe and destructive floods because of the negligence of the governmental entities responsible for controlling the increased runoff from the recently completed U.S. 31."

Antonucci, though, is assuring residents that they are not alone. He encouraged them to seek out a low-interest disaster loan. The Small Business Administration opened a Disaster Recovery Center for flood victims at O'Brien Recreation Center, 321 E. Walter St., where they will help with the application process.

The center will remain open from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. weekdays through Sept. 20.

And Antonucci said David Kane, director of Indiana's Department of Homeland Security, is stepping in to encourage dialog between INDOT and the county engineering department to figure out and address what is causing increased flooding.

"He is going to do everything he can to help us find a solution," Antonucci said of Kane. "I think in the near future we will be making great strides to recovery."

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