High water, low spirits

For Charlotte Masano, it was like a sequel to a bad movie.

Last summer, the resident of the 1300 block of Wharton Street spent countless hours cleaning her basement after water spouted from a floor drain, flooding her entire basement. The incident occurred after a torrential downpour.

Masano, an avid decorator for every occasion, had to trash 10 bags of ruined Christmas decorations.

For almost a year, all was quiet – that is, until another severe rainstorm hit the area June 6.

Masano screamed in frustration as the deluge returned, this time leaving behind brown soot and a putrid smell.

"The water went into my suitcases and large Tupperware containers," said the 57-year-old resident. "They weren’t even opened. That’s how bad it is."

This scenario is all too common to local residents, many of whom cringe every time weather forecasters call for showers. Irate neighbors met with city officials at a local school to discuss the problem last night.

"Every time it rains, we’re on pins and needles because we know if it rains too much, we get water," said Maria Scarduzio, of 16th Street and Oregon Avenue, whose basement was flooded twice last year and again on June 6. "I’m a city girl. I want to stay here forever. But if your basement is getting flooded every week, you can’t stay, especially if nobody will do anything about it."

Due to the widespread nature of the problem, residents are placing the blame on the city – not on piping problems inside their dwellings.

Masano’s neighbor, Gina Cucinotti, recently hired a plumber to investigate why her basement’s walls became waterlogged after the June 6 storm. Last summer, she also replaced her basement’s electrical box after it was inundated with storm water.

After taking her $48, the plumber informed Cucinotti there were no leaks in her house’s pipelines.

Others have drawn their own conclusions about the cause of the flooding.

"The sewer system is antiquated. It needs to be brought up and modernized to the 21st century," said Nancy Fargione, of the 1300 block of Wharton Street.

Contacting the Water Department for help, Fargione was told "the city is not responsible for acts of God."

PHILADELPHIA HAS ROUGHLY 3,300 miles of sewer mains, each with an average life span of up to 125 years, said Laura Copeland, spokesperson for the Water Department.

"Blaming [the flooding] on an antiquated system wouldn’t be correct," she said.

Instead, unusual storms producing exorbitant amounts of rainfall are responsible for the deluges this month and last summer, said Copeland, who noted that on June 6, 1.5 inches of rain fell in 20 minutes, the equivalent of a 25-year storm.

"Whenever you get that volume of rain in a short period of time, there’s a potential for flooding to occur," she said.

Last year, some residents qualified for relief funds from the Federal Emergency Management Agency. The bureau administered more than $6.2 million in housing and other needs-assistance grants after August’s disaster declaration and an additional $603,000 in September.

But statistics and free money offer little comfort to residents once again plagued with watery basements and expensive damages.

During her daughter’s baccalaureate Mass, Diana Straw received calls on her cell phone from frantic neighbors informing her that her "house has water in it."

Although she has a submersible pump in her home, 4 inches of water crept into her basement.

"It comes up the toilet and shower [drain] like a waterfall, and there’s no stopping it," said Straw, 53.

The resident of the 2700 block of South 17th Street noted most of her neighbors have similar stories.

"We all have finished basements on our street," Straw said. "That’s all you see are people constantly throwing their rugs out."

Straw needed roughly $13,000 in basement repairs after a similar deluge last August. Her insurance company picked up the bill since the policy covered flood damage.

But residents noted that tagging flood insurance onto a policy could be costly.

Merrick Centola, of the 1300 block of Wharton Street, asked his insurance company about upgrading his policy to include flood insurance. The move would double the price, he said.

Having replaced a hot-water heater from a flood last year, the resident is afraid to use an air conditioner and a fan recently submerged in water.

"It took me until five in the morning to clean this up," said Centola, 57, whose basement was left with a rank odor. "I just got this place back in order from last summer."

Last week, First District Councilman Frank DiCicco asked the Water Department to investigate the sewer systems on the 13th Street corridor – the area where his office is "getting the most complaints," he said.

On Monday, Copeland said sewer maintenance crews investigated a handful of locations, but found "no significant accumulation of debris that would result in flooding" (see sidebar).

While the problem may stem from faulty pipelines or heavy rainfall, DiCicco said trash clogging storm drains is possibly a "contributing factor." Though a short-lived street-sweeping program was unpopular with some residents because of parking restrictions, it might have helped alleviate the problem, he added.

While residents gather at town meetings and contemplate filing class-action lawsuits, others, including Fargione, remain "physically and emotionally drained."

"I can’t sleep at night. Subconsciously, it gets to you," she said. "[The sewer system] is like the hidden evil that lurks beneath the city that people aren’t aware of."