Queens Village homeowners plagued by raw sewage in homes

QUEENS VILLAGE (WABC) -- First, it was street flooding that homeowners in Queens Village had to put up with. They finally got a new catch basin, but after the first heavy rain, they got the shock of their lives.

"It comes out of the toilet, just running out of the toilet. The tub fills up and it starts running out the tub," said homeowner Nicole Johnson.

Raw sewage gushed up into Nicole's basement. Feces and foul-smelling water filling the tub and six inches deep on the floor.

"We don't know, hold your breath everytime it rains," she said.

Her son Devon Mackins scrambled to save as much as he could.

"Is it flooding downstairs? Does anybody hear something downstairs? Now we got to check downstairs," he said.

After losing the boiler and many other items, it happened again. Nicole suspected it was the new catch basin the city put in to stop flooding.

"DEP said when they rerouted it, they rerouted it into the sewer which could not support it, so that's why it comes into our homes," said Johnson.

At least eight homes she knows of along 207th Street.

"My feet covered with water and Lord knows what else. I say water," said homeowner Lillie Marwieh. ('Raw sewage'?, we asked) "Yes".

All over Lillie and Henry Marwiah's finished basement.

"It was horrible. We had to tear out. Keep bleaching and cleaning water to try and get the smell out," said Lillie.

DEP officials tell Eyewitness News they have now plugged the catch basin so it no longer accepts rain. But they add it's only a temporary repair. Yet homeowners brace for the next heavy rain.

"I don't feel comfortable leaving the house now when it rains because you never know what I will find," Lillie said.