Man living in Jewel Woods neighborhood, notorious for flooding, makes plea for help, says he didn't know he was in a floodplain

SOUTH BEND, Ind. — In the quiet Jewel Woods neighborhood, Andrew Tipaldos says he bought his dream house located at 60220 Ruby Street. It's supposed to be a place for him and his wife Heather to settle down. Now, he says that dream has turned into a nightmare because of recurring flooding. He says it was never disclosed to him that his house sits in a flood zone.

"Really, I feel angry and I feel bamboozled," said Tipaldos.

Andrew Tipaldos is dealing with a range of emotions as he faces his new reality. Tipaldos moved to South Bend from North Carolina back in December.

"I spent all this money and used all my savings up to buy my dream home, come here for an opportunity where I thought I'm 65 years old, I'm going to work a couple years, make some decent money and retire in the beautiful city of South Bend, and instead I bought into was a nightmare."

The Fourth of July weekend marks the second time Tipaldos says his property completely flooded.

"It was a perfectly sunny day. I went to my buddies for a barbecue and came back to this being all underwater."

Multiple fans and a dehumidifier now take us space in his basement. He says workers were down there from 9 p.m. until 2 a.m. clearing the water out of his home, but that doesn't fix the damage left behind.

"See the molding in the wood, how it's all starting to rot? That all has to be ripped out. It'll have to be cut out up to here, all the way around. We don't know what's behind here; there could be more water. There could be more water underneath the stairs; we won't know until we rip it apart," explained Tipaldos.

Not only is he stressed, but he feels guilty and that feeling is growing stronger as we get closer to July 11 because that's when his wife Heather arrives.

"I had to sit here this morning on the front porch and explain to my wife of 45 years what she's coming to, and what she's coming to is a disaster and the things we lost and how are we going to fix it? How are we going to move forward from here? You know, what do we do? This is the first time in my life I don't have answers nor does she."

Originally from New York, Tipaldos says he moved to North Carolina for his wife and her job. She is now making the same sacrifice, but he feels it's not fair because of what she is walking in to.

Andrew, standing in the middle of what he calls a cesspool, "see how deep this water is here?" says he was never told about any flooding concerns. Not by the previous owner, both real estate agents, the County, or the title company.

All he was told was "nope, there's no flood zone here. Nothing. We're good."

Googling the neighborhood, you'll see stories from ABC57 showing major flood events from 2016 and onward. Now, Tipaldos says he feels stuck after spending almost $400,000. Let's break down what he spent.

Tipaldos shared $295,000 was spent to purchase the house and at least $100,000 in flood repairs in March and July. Part of that $100,000 is made up of $37,000 for window repairs since he says the windows didn't close all the way. $13,000 on a new AC, Tipaldos says he was told it wasn't working for the past year. Let's also include $10,500 for a new sewer line.

Now, he's left wondering when this will happen again and he makes one final plea.

"I feel terrible, and I reach out to anyone that's watching this to see if they could help me."

Here is a copy of Tipaldos' disclosure agreement and there is no mention of a flood zone anywhere in here. The only thing mentioned is one question — "Is there any damage due to wind, flood, termites or insect?" That box is checked no.

You can see below on Indiana's floodplain map, Tipalods' home is listed in a flood plain.

However, on FEMA's flood map, the area is not marked as a floodplain. The area is highlighted in a blue box which only shows that the area we looked up is within that area.