'Mother Nature was not nice to us': Locals, officials react to Monday's flash flooding
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TOWN OF TONAWANDA, N.Y. (WIVB) -- Monuments and gravestones were halfway submerged at the Mount Olivet Cemetery on Monday following flash flooding in Tonawanda.
"I couldn't believe it--I've never seen it rain harder, I mean, I didn't know what it was--it was a little scary," said Tom Christy, the director of Buffalo Catholic Cemeteries. "It just rained harder than we've ever seen. I am a life long resident and it rained harder than anyone remembers."
The cemetery believes their grounds had around two and a half feet of water in some areas, but by Tuesday the majority of the water was cleared. They tell us this isn't the first time this type of flooding has occurred.
"Last year, a U-Haul truck was floating on Knoche Road, that's how severe flooding was," said Christy.
According to the National Weather Service, the Tonawanda area received nearly two inches of rain.
"Two inches of rain fell in a little over an hour, and there's not a sewer system to handle that amount of water," Supervisor of the Town of Tonawanda Joe Emminger said. "Our sewers are designed for a once in every hundred year event, and this storm yesterday was a once in every 200 years storm."
Emminger said that 30-40 streets were flooded in the Town of Tonawanda, but the issue was not just concentrated in the town.
"A lot of water in a short period of time, mother nature was not nice to us," said John White, the mayor of the City of Tonawanda. "It was just too much water for the sewers to take and the water was actually shooting 2-3 feet high out of every sewer."
White said that sewers were clogged, basements were flooding, and the fire department had to help pump some of the houses out. He said it was a team effort between the police, fire, DPW and road crews to get it all cleared up within a two hour period.
However, White said the city's sewers are in good shape.
"All the sewers are well lined now, they drain well. The unfortunate thing was a lot of water in a short period of time," said White. "It was very quick rain for a lot of rain in a short period of time, it caused a lot of havoc."
He said that people were kayaking, driving on sidewalks, and walking in the flooded water--he said you don't want to do that.
"It's a scary thing because a lot of the sewer caps were blown off so the water was coming high above the sewer caps, and it's a scary thing because I don't want anybody to fall through," said White.
White recommended that when flooding occurs, residents stay off the streets and let crews do their job.