![Mud remains on the basement floor of Shannon Meissner's Shaker Heights home after it was flooded during severe storms over the Labor Day weekend. The flooding may have mixed with sewage, posing potential health risks. [Shannon Meissner]](https://npr.brightspotcdn.com/dims4/default/d5a60b5/2147483647/strip/true/crop/3000x2250+0+0/resize/840x630!/format/webp/quality/90/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fnpr-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2Flegacy%2Fuploads%2F2020%2F9%2F08%2FIMG_3163.JPG)
The severe flooding across Northeast Ohio Labor Day caused drainage systems to back up in some areas, posing serious health risks.
Shannon Meissner, a Shaker Heights resident, said her basement was flooded with 3 to 4 inches of stormwater potentially contaminated with sewage.
“Not only is this really inconvenient to clean up, it’s expensive ... in addition to it being a fairly significant health hazard," she said. "I don’t know what’s in that sewage, and yet we’re exposed to it time and again.”
This is the third time her basement has flooded in the two years she has lived there, Meissner said. She lives in the Lomond neighborhood, where many homes have flooded during heavy rains over the past two years.
“People have play areas in the basement or their home offices in their basements, and you can’t use a good portion of your house when it’s filling up with sewage. Frankly, I don’t want to use my basement anymore,” Meissner said.
John Sobolewski, deputy director of environmental public health for Cuyahoga County, is also concerned about contaminated floodwaters in people’s homes from the storms.
“If it was straight stormwater, I’d have less of a concern, but because we have mixing occurring because a lot of these areas that are flooded are also unsanitary … we have to make sure that … we successfully eliminate potentially disease-carrying organisms,” he said.
He advises people to wear gloves and masks while cleaning up the floodwaters, and disinfect the areas afterward for better protection.
It’s also important to remove items that have absorbed the water, and dry out the area using fans, dehumidifiers, or air conditioners, he said.
If flooded basements are not dried out quickly, mold can begin to grow, which could lead to respiratory problems for people who live there, he added.
Meissner was able to clean out most of her basement Monday and is now waiting for professionals to come out and repair the damage.
Shaker Heights officials have planned a drainage repair project for the neighborhood in a few years, she said, but she worries about flooding issues in the meantime.
“I think people are right to not only be frustrated, but concerned about the repeated incursions into our basement and into our lives,” she said.
Shaker Heights residents can drop off their flood-damaged items at the Service Center on Chagrin Boulevard from 4 to 7 p.m. Tuesday.
