KOKOMO, Ind. – With flooded basements and crawl spaces from sewage backup, Kokomo homeowners turned their concerns over to the city Monday evening during a meeting at city hall.
Nine days of rain left many people in Kokomo with flooding from the city’s sewer system. Radell Green said her home has damages worth thousands of dollars.
“The city needs to take action on this and take responsibility,” said Green. “They need to take care of it."
Kokomo is working under state and federal mandates to keep sewage water out of its waterways.
The city is implementing a 20-year-plan to prevent the backups, and recently approved a $23 million proposal for improvements.
However, until that plan is fully planted, heavy rain could cause flooding again.
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“When you can't dump excess sewage or rain water into the creek and you have to process it in a certain way--that's what causing this issue," said David Tharp, Kokomo Deputy Mayor.
In May 2015, Green said she was instructed to fill out a tort claim to ask the city’s insurance company to pay for $8,000 in damages when her home was flooded with sewer water. She said her request was denied and she isn’t confident the city will assist with fixing her home’s more recent damages.
“I don't believe it because they told us to do that in 2015 and you can see where we got -- nowhere,” she said.
Officials with the city of Kokomo said improvements have been and will continue to be made.
Some tree roots have been removed and over $3 million has been spent on sewer improvements, according to city officials.
