MEMPHIS, Tenn. — Many in Germantown are still dealing with a nasty cleanup two days after flash flooding rushed into homes and caused trees and branches to fall.
In 2019, residents in Germantown experienced flash flooding and said they were told it was a 100-year flood. Almost four years later, it happened again, making many residents turn to the City of Germantown for answers to fix the problem.
During Tuesday’s storm, there was not a driveway or yard in sight in areas throughout Germantown. It was just water, residents recalled. A storm caused flash floods to rush through neighborhoods and some homes.
“This was the worst I’ve ever had,” said Peggy Goode, a Germantown resident. “It went down my driveway like a river.”
“I’ve got brick walls over here where my pool is and it was just a waterfall over the top into the pool. All my chairs blew away. It was a mess,” said Michael Post, another Germantown resident.
Two days after the storm, residents were still drying homes and clearing debris. Post has lived in Germantown for 22 years.
“It’s a lot of wind and a lot of water. I’ve never seen it like that before,” said Post. “I have service drains in the back. The water was supposed to go down. The water was coming up this high. There’s so much pressure underneath all the water that the drains were backing up about two feet high.”
Residents said the area is not a flood zone, so they don’t understand why the heavy rain is now causing bad flooding. Some have pointed to clogged drains which they said the city tried cleaning after the storm.
“They came by yesterday and cleaned it up. They got a huge amount of debris from there. Had it been cleaned, it would have been better,” said Goode. “I think they try and just like they came by yesterday and cleaned all the drains up. They’re good about that. It’s just sometimes, they can’t do it all at one time.”
The City of Germantown said flooding is a result of more high-intensity and short-duration storms to a drainage system built for only 10 to 25-year storm events. They approved a $2 million project to improve the Lateral E ditch in the Oakleigh neighborhood which was built in the 1970’s and 1980’s. They are currently in phase one which costs more than $600,000.
Aside from Oakleigh, the city said they are using the almost $12million from the federal American Rescue Plan for storm water capital improvements.
Germantown Mayor, Mike Palazzolo, told us he went around the city surveying the damage. We asked Post if the city had reached out to talk about the damages. He said, “No.” Until then, it is cleanup and bracing for the next big rain for many Germantown residents.
One resident did tell us the Mayor came by her home on Tuesday right after the storm, but only asked about her vote.
The city said the Public Works Department has two three-men crews that work on streets and drainage. They said clearing drains depends on the weather and based on need.