Street Flooding Still a Problem for Some Village Residents

Street flooding was a problem for some Babylon Village residents before Hurricane Sandy struck in October, says resident Ronald Camilleri, but since the superstorm slammed the Long Island coastline, it has gotten even worse for him and his neighbors on Cedar Lane.

"My corner floods all the time," Camilleri told village board members at the Babylon Village Board meeting on Tuesday evening. "It was there before the storm, and it has been worse after."

During high tides, Camilleri explained, the water from the Great South Bay backs up into the storm drains and forces the water upwards onto the streets.

"We're underwater more than we're ever above," he said.

Mayor Ralph Scordino explained the area's conditions and makeup – homes built on former swamplands – make it incredibly hard to drain and, following the storm, even harder to to stop it right now.

"The bog doesn't let the water go," Scordino said. With an extremely wet winter following the nearly four feet of water that flooded the southern part of the village, the land has had little to no time to dry up.

Camilleri offered several suggestions for fixing the problem to the board, including pumps or a sump to help collect the water. Mayor Scordino noted pumps were used recently in nearby West Islip and did not help the problem.

Scordino, however, did mention a state and counted backed project the village undertook behind homes on Stowe Avenue, where a creek runs and eventually empties into the bay behind the Spencer-Boyd Funeral Home. Water flowing down the creek also caused flooding on that street. A project that slowed the water down using cesspool rings has helped alleviate the problem.

"The money simply isn't there, though," Scordino told the audience. "These agencies that helped us with that – the town, the county, the state – they just do not have the money for it... especially after the storm."

He added: "We're still waiting for the funds from FEMA for our cleanup after Sandy." The full cleanup cost the village an estimated $2 million.

The mayor told Camilleri and other neighbors that were in attendance that he would have the village engineers take a look at the problem and see if they could work out a solution. In the meantime, Scordino told Camilleri the next best thing to do was reach out to local senators and assemblymen to get the problem noticed, and get a share of the relief funds from the hurricane.

"Send letters to the senators... our assemblymen," Scordino suggested. "Keep on doing that and hopefully we'll get our share."