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Too much rain, too fast blamed for flooded streets; Residents upset

4 years 7 months 4 weeks ago Wednesday, July 31 2019 Jul 31, 2019 July 31, 2019 5:33 PM July 31, 2019 in News
Source: WBRZ

DENHAM SPRINGS - Livingston Parish residents are concerned about drainage issues after Tuesday's rainstorm dumped a bunch of water on them in a short amount of time.

The storm from 4:30 p.m. to 6:30 p.m. Tuesday dropped about two to four inches of rain over Denham Springs. Ditches overflowed and streets flooded. Still, some people say what they saw was a first.

"That was pretty crazy," said Mitchell Taylor. "Right in front of the Exxon station right there it was covered and I've never seen that covered."

Taylor lives on Dunn Road, where the water covered the streets and crept into his front yard and up on his driveway. He had to drive through the intersection of Highway 16 and Lockhart Road to get home, that's where he ran into a lot of water. Water was covering the roads, rising in parking lots of businesses, and bubbling out of manholes. The Livingston Parish Sheriff's Office called deputies there to monitor traffic.

Randi Langlois lives a couple of houses away from Taylor. She also experienced flooded streets, water on her driveway and in her backyard.

"Within that time, you know, the water came up," she said. "My backyard was completely flooded."

Her home looked like an island. Langlois says she waited all evening for it to drain and has waited before. The water sits on her property so often she can't grow grass.

"We have planted grass seed three or four times and every time the rain comes up it washes it out," she said.

Livingston Parish Public Works Department Director Sam Digirolamo says he's never seen the water come up that fast either. Digirolamo did not report any drainage issues but says the system couldn't handle all that water at once.

After taking a closer look in her neighborhood Tuesday, Langlois thinks there is a drainage problem.

"It's stopped on this one side of the culvert and barely trickling through on the other side," she said.

After multiple experiences, she fears the culverts are clogged and need to be cleaned out.

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