Flooding still soaks 63rd Ave. residents

A flood-prone resident of 63rd Avenue in Rego park hopes Tuesday’s work on pipes helps alleviate the street’s troubling and costly flooding problems.

If you’re a farmer, you learn to be a keen observer of the weather report. It can be the same if you live on 63rd Avenue in Rego Park between Woodhaven Boulevard and Alderton Street, where in recent years, even moderate amounts of steady rain wreaks havoc with water — and worse — in their basements.

“Friday night we were at it again,” Julius Adams, a 40-year resident of the street, told the Chronicle on Tuesday. “Up at 4:30 in the morning trying to keep it from going to the rest of the basement. We had a check valve replaced, but it couldn’t hold it in.”

Residents believe a combination of too many storm drains — a total of 18 on the street — and new development including an apartment house just across Woodhaven Boulevard overwhelms the storm sewer system any time there is more than just a brief shower.

A truck from an environmental contractor was on the street Tuesday cleaning out pipes and drains along the street. The two men who were working said they were cleaning out whatever water and debris was in the drains, 600 feet at a time, doing the entire street. A supervisor from the city was in a small truck down the street.

Adams said they weren’t notified that the truck was coming.

“They just appeared,” he said. “I was wondering to myself ‘What are they doing?’ because they were here two years ago and did a similar thing. We thought they might be checking the line.”

Cleaner pipes may help, with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration forecasting about an inch of rain in parts of Queens from today, Thursday morning, through Friday night.

Adams certainly hopes Tuesday’s visit helps.

“There wasn’t even that much rain,” he said, referring to last Friday. “We were holding a brick down [over the drain] in our basement shower, trying to keep it from going to the rest of the basement and vacuuming it out. And I bought water barriers that soak up some of the water.”

Just when their greatest fear hit — the basement toilet began filling up steadily — it began to recede.

“The rain had stopped,” Adams said. Many neighbors confirmed that they too had flooded. “And now we’re having $4,000 of work done.”

He said the only way now appears to be the installation of an industrial strength check valve, which at the turn of a wheel blocks any water’s access to back up into the home.

“It completely shuts off the water,” he said. “You can’t use your water. You can’t use your toilet. But it keeps water and sewage out.”

Councilwoman Lynn Schulman (D-Forest Hills), in whose district the street sits, has been supporting efforts by U.S. Rep Grace Meng (D-Flushing) to raise the amount of help the federal government makes available for flood mitigation and assistance.

QueensChronicle.com

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