Twinsburg neighborhood seeks answers to flooding

TWINSBURG, Ohio (WOIO) – A neighborhood in Twinsburg is still drying out from storms on the 9th after flooding destroyed about 20 basements. The owners say it’s not the first time and they believe a city project is to blame.

“I walk into this room {in the basement} and it’s already coming so fast and so fast and so dirty, and I’m … panicking,” said Jane Sharp, whose basement was filled with 17 inches of cloudy water . .

Neighbors on Timothy and Hawkins Lanes say flooding was never an issue until a 2020 project.

“In 2020, in the summer of 2020, on Timothy Lane, they tore up a bunch of grass and pipes that they said were broken,” Jessica Schultz said.

Shortly after that work was completed, about a dozen homes were flooded, water pouring through basement drains.

After another big storm in early August, even more homes took on gray, smelly water.

“It’s extremely frustrating, it’s extremely sad, it’s extremely concerning to know that this can happen at any time, anytime it rains,” said Raymond Sharp.

The owners say the damage is in the tens of thousands of dollars and want answers, believing the work done in 2020 is the root of the problem.

They showed 19 News a report made in 2020 that said the problem could be some type of blockage or build-up in a pipe where it connects to a lake, putting a recommendation to add it to a maintenance schedule.

“After that I talked to the city and they said they were going to do a bunch of things, they said they were going to do maintenance, but I never heard of maintenance,” Schultz said.

19 News arrived at City Hall to speak with Mayor Sam Saffide.

“I’m trying to get to the bottom of this to fix them,” the mayor said.

Saffide says they are working with city departments to find the cause through the process of elimination.

“I called the wastewater manager and said, ‘I want the guys to go out to every household to make sure it’s sanitary or stormwater,’ and in every case that I’m aware of, it’s been rains,” said Saffide.

He says the storm system will take a look next week, and the first thing on the list is the 2020 project.

“Let me remind you, I wasn’t mayor at the time, but we’re going to revisit that and that’s one of the first places I told them to check to make sure nothing failed in the lining of that canal,” Saffide said .

He adds that he and city staff will continue to work to find what went wrong and will make reverse 911 calls to affected homes on Friday to contact homeowners before the weekend.

As for financial aid for those who suffered water damage, it remains unclear whether any will come.

Neighbors in the area want to make sure that if they do another expensive basement repair, it’s for the last time.

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