River Park neighbors get ready for flooding with rain on the way

SOUTH BEND, Ind. - We are in a drought but rain is on the way. And in some South Bend neighborhoods, that means flooding.

Sometimes rain can be fun, but other times it makes getting out of the driveway a little more difficult.

“Usually on a good rainy day down here on the street on the end it will just create one big puddle that stretches from one side to the other – goes all the way deep across," Devonte Brown, one River Park neighbor said.

Tana: And then on a bad day?

“On a bad day you’ll get that water coming halfway down the street," he said.

Brown isn’t the only River Park neighbor fed up that Wall Street actually starts behaving like a river itself.

“Halfway up to your knee’s I’d say," Joseph Henry, another neighbor said.

“It gets extremely bad when it rains and sometimes on ironwood and wall street it gets to the point where I’ve seen the water go up to people’s door, almost to the door handles," Tommy Snyder, a third neighbor said.

"There’s a lot of it and when cars come by, it splashes everywhere," Brown said.

Don’t even think about driving.

"No you won’t be able to drive through the water, it’s that bad," Henry said.

"Some people do drive in it and unfortunately there has been a car that got stuck in it and they had to come to get the car out of there," Snyder said.

Their advice?

"Avoid it. When it rains like that and it floods like that, just go take ironwood to the next block or something," Henry said.

"We go around the block. Try not to go through it and that intersection, mainly, kind of concerns me when school starts, kids are over there so people are crossing the street all the time," Snyder said.

The problem gets to a point, neighbors are left clearing out the drains themselves.

"Absolutely, we have neighbors come out here with boots on and waders with rakes to try and rake stuff off of them," he said.

"Trying to get all the stuff out of the sewer so it can go back so people can drive on wall street go through it, wait for the city to come and pick it up with their trucks," Henry said,

Tana: Do they ever?

“Once in a while yes," he said.

“I hope something gets done," Snyder said.

ABC57 did reach out to the drainage board about what these residents can do if the drain is clogged, but have yet to hear back.

So what are those next steps? 

Because at this point, many neighbors aren’t too happy about having to clear the drain themselves with their rakes. Some – urging the city to come by more often.

"At this point, I think there’s something wrong with the sewers that are causing it to get stopped up so the water is not draining as fast as it should. Far as I know, they should probably check the drains and see if something is wrong with that," Brown said.

“It leaks real bad on that corner for some reason and it flows down here and the city does try to take care of the curbs but I think they should do more of a job like every week here because of the trees, a lot of things fall in the street and it does plug up the drain when it rains real bad," Snyder said.

Of course, 311 is a good source to call if your neighborhood does flood. And if it is an emergency, the 311 website says someone from the sever department will be dispatched to evaluate the situation.