Flooding hammers Syracuse as creeks rage, sewers back up, basements flood

Syracuse flooding

A portion of Hiawatha Boulevard was flooded Thursday, Aug. 19, 2021, after steady rain continued in Central New York.Katrina Tulloch | ktulloch@syracuse.com

Syracuse, N.Y. — Pat Deacon woke up to knee-deep water in her basement Thursday morning.

The sewer system had failed outside her house on Crawford Avenue, where she’s lived for 41 years. Deacon said she’s had backups over the years, but not in a very long time.

“It’s been worse,” she said, “but this is bad.”

At least five basements on Crawford Avenue in the Meadowbrook neighborhood flooded due to sewer backups after heavy rains pummeled the city for two days straight.

Across the city, those rains flooded roads and parks, burst manhole covers and pushed Onondaga Creek to the brink of overflowing.

In a typical day, the city’s sewer bureau gets between 10 and 20 calls, said Corey Driscoll Dunham, operations director for the city.

That office has received at least 44 calls about backed-up sewers and other issues since Wednesday morning, according to records from the Department of Public Works. That doesn’t include the five complaints from Crawford Avenue.

Those calls included things like backed-up basements, flooded streets, vents spouting water and “water shooting 6 feet into air from man hole” on the 1300 block of Euclid Avenue.

Deacon and her neighbors said the fire department responded Thursday morning to shut off gas and electricity in the basements. Deacon was worried that her furnace might be ruined, even though it sits on 18-inch cinder blocks. She previously lost a dryer to flooding and is hoping she won’t lose a second one.

The city water department came to her house this morning, she said, but couldn’t do much until the sewer system could catch up to the overwhelming water.

“They looked at it and said the water has nowhere to go,” she said, adding that the city has been extremely responsive to her calls. “There’s no point in assessing blame. It’s a bad hurricane.”

Pat Deacon sewer

A sewer backup flooded Pat Deacon's basement on Crawford Avenue in Syracuse, Thursday, Aug. 19, 2021.Provided photo

Up to 4,000 Syracuse basements flood every year due to sewer backups, according to a 2019 syracuse.com report. Some of those backups are caused by people putting the wrong things down drains, like grease or paint. But during heavy rains, cracks in sewer pipes can let in rain water and overwhelm the system. Many of those pipes are over 100 years old.

It’s a costly problem for homeowners, since basement water damage isn’t covered by most insurance policies. In addition to the cleanup, owners often lose expensive appliances like hot water heaters or furnaces.

The county’s sewage treatment plant on Hiawatha Boulevard recorded 2.75 inches of rain between midnight and noon Thursday. Typical rainfall there in all of August is 3.7 inches. In the last three days alone, that plant has seen 5.45 inches total.

Justin Sayles, a spokesman for Onondaga County, said there were no major issues or backups at treatment plant.

The rain is mostly leftover weather from Hurricane Fred, which is making its way up the eastern coast of the United States.

Syracuse wasn’t hit as hard as some towns and villages to its south and west, like Camillus and Marcellus. There, many roads were under several feet of water.

In the city, State Fair Boulevard was closed Thursday morning due to flooding. Parts of Hiawatha Boulevard and Spencer Street in that area were also flooded.

The heavy waters pushed Onondaga Creek, which flows through the city, over its banks in some places.

Greg Loh, Syracuse’s chief policy officer, said there were no reports of severe flooding on the creek, but one section of the Creekwalk was closed near South Avenue.

In Lower Onondaga Park, a playground was under several inches of water along the creek. The corridor through Franklin Square was filled nearly to the banks.

Mayor Ben Walsh urged people to use caution around flooded areas.

“City staff from DPW, engineering, parks, police and fire are monitoring conditions on roads, around bridges and overpasses, and near bodies of water,” Walsh said in a statement Thursday afternoon. “I’ve been out across the city and urge residents to use caution near any signs of flooding. The forecast appears to be improving, but until the high water recedes, conditions are still very dangerous.”

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