When Ruth Costigan and her family left to go up North on March 14, they never dreamed they would return on that Sunday to find their Conklin Road home surrounded by a newly formed lake.
“We came home Sunday at noon, and found it,” Costigan said. “When we left on Friday, the drain was just starting to fill up.”
By Sunday afternoon, Costigan said water was starting to come in through her basement window wells, and the home’s front yard and driveway were already under water.
“I called the Road Commission (For Oakland County) on Sunday…I think they sent a driver out, but he just looked at it,” said Costigan. “I called three more times on Sunday, and again on Monday. Then I finally called Orion Township.”
Costigan said on Sunday her neighbor had contacted Orion Township Clerk Jill Bastian at her home regarding the standing water.
“(Bastian) said the township supervisor wanted to know about situations like this,” Costigan added. “But (the township) sent the sewer department out, and it’s not the sewer, it’s the storm drain.”
Costigan was told the township would contact the road commission, and by Monday afternoon a crew was out working on the two drains across the street. She said they were able to finally get those and her neighbor’s drain open.
“So on Monday night it stopped leaking into my basement,” she said. “They said they’d come back to clear our drain, but by Wednesday no one had so I called the township supervisor again.”
Costigan said Orion Township Supervisor Jerry Dywasuk contacted her at her home that evening.
“He said he would talk to the road commission,” she said. “By Thursday morning, our drain was unplugged.”
Costigan said due to the fact that they have a pump, their basement escaped much damage other than dirty walls and a dirty floor from where water sat.
“But we don’t have insurance (for water damage),” she said. “If I didn’t have two sewer drains and the pump (in the basement)…Thank God we don’t have a finished basement.”
Costigan said she wasn’t sure what the road commission’s procedure was for clearing the drains.
“I don’t know what their funding is,” she said. “But in our basement, water was flowing down the walls. Every drain was taking on water. We had a two-foot wide path of water at the bottom of the stairs.”
Costigan said Conklin Road is a school bus route, and has many young children that play in the area.
“If they had wandered near the ditch without a parent around, they could drown very easily,” she added. “Our drain has backed up once before, but never like this.”
Costigan would be interested to know if the drain was more frozen shut or plugged.
“And are they cleaning it out regularly? I called on a Sunday…What do they consider to be an emergency?” she asked. “Is it my responsibility to pay more money to an insurance company?
“We would have had to rent some heavy duty pumps had they not got (the drains) unplugged,” she said.