RACINE, Wis. — In 24 hours, Racine broke records in single-day rain totals. On Monday, homes in the area have been paying for it — as flooded basements have forced dozens of homeowners to spend their day clearing out damaged items.
The Petersons say they found over a foot of water in their basement, ruining most of their belongings.
“It’s been hectic, we’ve been up since 5:30 this morning,” said Kayla Peterson. “Half is gone, if not more, but we’re not even done going through everything.”
They spent the afternoon trying to save old family photos and everything that they could.
The Petersons weren’t the only ones spending the day cleaning. John Lui lives a few doors down from them and took the day off work to clear the flood from his basement.
“My sump pump couldn’t keep up because it was raining so hard, that’s what the whole problem was,” Lui said. “It just made a big mess. Like, a big, big mess.”
Ron Pritzlaff, Assistant Commissioner of Racine’s Department of Public Works, said their field crews were out Sunday night working to ease flooding in the harder hit areas.
“Our field office personnel went out to those particular areas and did what they needed to do to clear out any blockages and get those situations rectified,” Pritzlaff said.
RELATED COVERAGE: Racine Department of Public Works crews to pick up flood-damaged bulky items this week
But for homes that did flood, the city is now offering to pick up any flood-damaged items that need to be disposed of and take them to their local waste site.
Pritzlaff says within 10 minutes of putting out the pick-up notice, they received over 50 calls.
That service will be available until Friday. Those interested can call the city at 262- 636-9126.
