Some Monroe Houses Flood After Heavy Rains

Heavy rain flooded yards and homes all over Monroe Tuesday night and early Wednesday morning.

And some blame the city's pumps for not working.

Monroe Public Works reported over five and a half inches of rain overnight.

Some homes flooded, and that has one man saying the city is not doing its job.

But Public Works says there was just too much water for pumps to handle.

"Rain water go away," that's the plea of homeowners like Robert Barnes across Monroe.

"Two o'clock this morning I stepped out the bed and stepped into about two or three inches of water right at the edge of the bed, said Barnes.

Within the last year Barnes has been flooded out of his house on Oakmont Drive three times.

And Barnes says when water was rising inside his house; the nearby pump on Oliver Road wasn't even running.

Lexington Elementary principal Lynn Hodge says even though water didn't get in her school, that didn't stop the water rising in the yard.

"You know I've been here for 17 years and I have never seen it fill up like this before," said Hodge.

Barnes says he even called public works but couldn't get any answers about the Pope/Westminster pumping system.

"And at least somebody should ride down the street to see how high the water is and have somebody at the pump station to turn the pump on," said Barnes

Charles Westrom manages Monroe's storm sewer pumps and he says he’s been dealing with pumps all through the night and morning.

"We try to staff the stations before the storms get here," said Westrom

Westrom says three different pumping stations, Stubbs Avenue, Rochelle and Pope/Westminster had mechanical problems overnight.

Westrom says most of those pumps were repaired in 30 minutes, but he says with over five inches of rain, the pumps just couldn't keep up.

"During those 30 minutes, the storm, the rain was really coming down hard and the water level increased significantly which translates to water in the surrounding areas," said Westrom.

And Westrom says pumps are checked every day and when the rain comes, public works is on the lookout for problems.

Westrom promised that one of the pumps that didn't work will be fixed by the end of the day Wednesday.

And he knows his department may have a busy night again this week. 

We're expecting more heavy rain again on Friday.