LARGO, Fla. (WFLA) – Laura Ball has lived with her house torn apart and pieces of her life scattered on the floor for three long weeks.
“Yesterday, I just got to the point where I was like, ‘Throw it away. Throw it away.’ What are you going to do?,” Ball said.
Ball and her neighbor, Tanja Wilson, discovered their homes on 139th Street N in Largo flooded with at least three inches of raw sewage water. They found waste, toilet paper and roaches on their floor. City of Largo leaders admit they messed up when testing pipes nearby, causing the backup.
“I want them to fix my house, and I mean fix it the way it was before this started,” Bell said.
The city has paid for some work, although progress is painfully slow.
And now, Ball points to her storage unit out front as another failure by the city. It’s not waterproof, she says. It was not elevated, and pictures and heirlooms she managed to save were stashed there and flooded again because of water from Hurricane Hermine. Sewage water also came into the home again through a toilet.
Ball blames the city for this too, saying her home has never flooded in more than 20 years.
8 On Your Side called the city for answers and for a solution to protect these homes during future storms. But many of the decision makers had taken the day off because of the storm. A supervisor with environmental services called back to say he sent a supervisor to the area and did modifications to the pumping system that slowed the flow and will hopefully keep sewage water out of homes.
