Thursday’s storm system is gone, but some residents who live near the intersection of Ambassador Caffery Pkwy. and Dulles Dr. are dealing with high water. One homeowner, Mark Pope, has previously taken the issue into his own hands.
“We’ve been in this house for 17 years, and we’ve had issues with this drainage channel for a number of years. It gets clogged up with sticks and trash and leaves,” Pope said.
Pope’s backyard backs up to the drainage system. After yesterday’s rain storm, the drainage channel is completely clogged and has not begun to subside. Pope put on his rain boots and grabbed a shovel just to show KATC how much water was backed up.
“That’s about three feet,” Pope said.
The water takes up the entire drainage system and even floods over into the parking lot of the shopping strip in front of it. This isn’t the first time Pope or his new neighbors have experienced this problem.
“In the summer of 2017, we had heavy rains like Thursday’s rain, and it clogged up like this. My neighbor and I put our heads together and our effort and our money, and we went and rented a pump. We ran that pump full force for nearly two hours, and we guesstimated that we pumped nearly 15,000 gallons out of this clogged up channel and put it into the storm drain system,” Pope said.
Other neighbors say the city government says that the drainage channel is on private property, and the drain would have to be fixed by the owner. Residents are now in the process of trying to reach out to the owner in Arkansas.
Pope and his neighbors are now concerned that more bad rainy days could cause their backyards to flood. We reached out to LCG, but they were closed early for the holiday.
