Heavy rain floods streets throughout Tri-State area
ROSEDALE (WABC) -- The Tri-State area is drying out Saturday, after a night of heavy rain that led to flooding on many local streets.
Water rose past the curbs on 148th Avenue in Rosedale Queens, where homeowners say flooding has been a problem for years.
Any time there is a good downpour along 148th Avenue between Francis Lewis Boulevard and 258th Street, it not only rains, but it floods the street, starting with each curb where the drains are clogged.
"Every time it rains, you've got a guarantee of two and a half feet of water covering at least 20 houses on each side of the block," says Queens resident Carl Paterson, "the kids can't walk the streets."
Paterson has watched those drains clog and the water rise for a short time since moving into his house, but he says others have endured the problem for much longer. For years, Marie Oscar says she has dealt with a flooded basement.
Being the new neighbor on the block, Carl Paterson has taken up the fight to get the city to clean out the sewers and fix the drains and street, for he and the other hard-working taxpayers.
"How many more years do they have to suffer? Where is our taxpaying money going to? Why is it not going to our immediate community?" Paterson says.
The heavy rain flooded streets in Suffolk County overnight, where the storm also brought power outages. Strong winds knocked down a tree on Chateau Drive in Melville, bringing down live wires with it.
Police blocked the road as crews worked in the rain to restore power.
