ERLANGER, Ky. — Michelle Richards asks herself the same question every time heavy rain makes its way to her home on Concord Drive: “How much am I going to lose this time?”
On Monday, it was everything.
“Everything in our garage, everything in our basement, our washer and dryer — everything down there is gone,” she said. “And this is not the first time. This is the second.”
Nearby Stevenson Road was temporarily multiple feet underwater, forcing officials to shut it down. A tweet from the city’s official account used a pair of abandoned vehicles as measuring sticks: In the first picture, the rain is window-height on the smaller red sedan and just above the tires on the larger SUV. By the next, only the sedan’s roof is visible.
Due to the extreme amount of rain and ongoing flooding, Stevenson Road (from Concord Drive to Terrace Drive) has been closed. Please use caution. If you need assistance, contact Kenton County Non-Emergency Dispatch at 859.356.3191. Thank you. pic.twitter.com/ckEBRD8ML2
— City of Erlanger (@erlangerkygov) July 15, 2019
Donna Saylor, who manages the Stevenson Road Greenhouse, said the flooding destroyed most of her dry goods, damaged her parking lot and ruined many of the chemicals she uses to care for her plants.
Like Richards, she said she was used to inconvenience accompanying rain in Erlanger. Just not this much.
“I don’t know if it’s just been built up for a while, but this is the worst it’s ever been,” she said.
Like the water itself, the path to a possible resolution for affected homes and businesses is murky. Richards said Monday night she had reached out to the Sanitation District of Northern Kentucky in search of a permanent solution to their frequent flooding problem.
