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Livingston couple flooded with fear over drainage issues

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LIVINGSTON- Nearly a day after inclement weather, Danielle Wiley was still anxious about what she saw last night. She and her husband’s home was the only house on Norwood Drive in Livingston surrounded by rapidly rising rainwater.

"This is not living,” said Danielle Wiley. “I've lived in my house for 26 years, and I absolutely hate my house, but I can't sell my house because I can't put this problem on someone else.”

Her husband, John, said it is the type of thing that makes you sick to your stomach.

“Because you're afraid, this is going to happen again you know. We were out of our house for almost a year with the last two floods,” he said.

The problem is not rain or flash floods, it is actually drainage. “The creek that we live near. It's doing better. It's draining well, but the water's not getting to the creek. It's stuck in my front yard,” said John.

The issue is water flows into a 32-inch pipe in a ditch in front of their home that feeds into to a 16-inch pipe that is several inches higher than the pipes draining water to it.

“I don't want to worry about my house every time there is a simple 2-inch rainstorm, and that's what I have to do,” Danielle said.

Parish officials admit they are aware of the problem, but say the pipe was installed illegally and without any parish approval.

When News 2 asked why the problem can not simply be fixed, they responded: "economics." That is something the Wiley's have heard before.

“I pay taxes, all of my neighbor’s pay taxes, and he said 'Well, not enough',” she said.

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