Flooding rankles residents in St. Clair Shores

ST. CLAIR SHORES — Heavy rain events that occurred in late July and early August caused flooding for residents of St. Clair Shores.

Councilman John Caron explained that when a heavy amount of rainfall occurs in a short period of time, main and sanitary sewers can become overwhelmed.

“The reason for that is there’s a certain amount of water around any house that needs to drain away through the sanitary lead, through the drain tiles in a home,” Caron said.

He went on to say there could be scattered events around the city or multiple homes on one street affected due to the main being overwhelmed.

“What we’ve had in this last week or the storm on Thursday looks to be that we’ve mostly had scattered events,” Caron said. “One house here, one house there. And there could be a street or two where there was something with their main that has to be investigated.”

The city had people contact the St. Clair Shores Department of Public Works so their leads and main drains could be checked.

Caron said all of the floods during the most recent rainfall were scattered events.

“I’m just going to give you (a) general (answer) just because they’re not final,” Caron said. “I’m getting (information) that basically under 125 homes reported flooding from Thursday’s storms. That’s out of 23,000 properties. Got to put that into perspective with what you see on social media to what people actually report.”

Those who report flooding to DPW possibly had their property inspected to conclude where the issue lies. Caron also said they are directed to file a claim with the city’s finance department.

“That will get reviewed by the city’s insurance to determine if we were liable for that or not,” Caron said.

Across the entire city, Caron said every five years mains are inspected for tree root intrusions, blockages and other things. The entire city was last inspected in 2022, and before that, in 2017.

Resident Victoria Adams said a finished part of her basement had two inches of water in it during the most recent heavy rain event.

“We have brand new vinyl flooring down there,” Adams said. “And that’s pretty much predominantly my daughter’s playroom so a lot of her toys got thrown away.”

She went on to say she had to throw away one of her new rugs and two built-in cabinets worth around $600 that were ruined as well.

“It wasn’t nearly as bad as a couple years ago when we got flooded,” Adams said. “We lost lots, lots during that flood and we kind of learned our lesson. So we didn’t have as much this time.”

Flooding doesn’t occur for Adams’ family every time there is heavy rainfall. They’ve taken preventative measures to waterproof their basement and clear the main drain of tree roots. However, she did say heavy flooding occurred before when a pump station failed like it reportedly did this time.

“I think a couple years ago when we had it really bad, it was a really heavy rainfall and the pump station couldn’t keep up, so it backed up into everybody’s homes,” Adams said.

Adams did not attempt to contact the DPW to file a claim. She said a couple years ago, they completed the full process.

“When that happens your insurance increases,” Adams said. “So unfortunately, we’re just going to have to take the hit. We didn’t even contact (them.) St. Clair Shores was putting out the number to contact them and so on and so forth. And we’re not going to do that because they’re just going to make us go through insurance anyway.”

Though she’s feeling frustrated with the situation, she wanted to emphasize she isn’t blaming the City of St. Clair Shores.

“I do think that we have a pretty strong council, city council, and that they’re very receptive, they’re very present on Facebook and answering questions,” Adams said.

She said her biggest frustration is that the flooding has to stop.

“Whatever the reason is, it just has to stop because it’s not fair to the taxpayers to continually have to clean out their basements and take financial hits,” Adams said.

Resident Nick Mayner said in a Facebook message he’d like the city to figure out why the cement in the street is so sunken.

“And why it takes 3+ hours for the drains to work after the rain is done,” Mayner said in his message.

On Aug. 2, FOX 2 Detroit reported that the pump station in St. Clair Shores failed due to a DTE outage.

“On Aug. 2, DTE Energy was informed by the Michigan Department of Transportation that the Alger pumping station in St. Clair Shores was only receiving half power,” DTE said in an emailed statement. “DTE’s remote monitoring system indicated a possible fault in the area, so the company immediately sent crews to inspect its equipment. However, DTE found no issues with the power delivery and confirmed customers in the area, including the pumping station, were receiving full power. DTE is working with MDOT to determine the cause of the discrepancy and ensure the ongoing reliability of the pumping station.”

Macomb County Public Works Commissioner Candice Miller said in a statement that reports that the Chapaton Pump Station pumps failed are incorrect.

“There were no pump failures at Chapaton. We did activate the emergency bypass there, which we very seldom do. But by doing so, we averted basement flooding in hundreds, if not thousands, of homes,” Miller said in the statement sent by email.

Caron said since regular maintenance started in 2017 due to storms in 2016, he hasn’t seen entire areas affected by flooding. He said it’s very important for residents to report to the city if they are experiencing issues.

“We need that information to tell if there’s something systemic in the main line,” Caron said.