Flooding leads to quite a mess for home and business owners in Mamaroneck
MAMARONECK, N.Y. -- Extreme flooding severely impacted homes and businesses in Mamaroneck on Friday.
One homeowner didn't wake up thinking her basement and garage would eventually be under water.
Like many others in the neighborhood, she was later operating on a generator, pumping out as much water as she could.
"Everything. Furniture, my kids' memories, my kids' school memories ... toys," Concepcion Castillo said.
A first-time home buyer, Castillo has only been living on Bishop Avenue for a year. She was told her home isn't in a flood zone, so she didn't get flood insurance. Now, she has to pay for the flood damage to her basement and garage out of pocket.
"We weren't prepared for this, at all," Brian Cardone said.
Cardone has owned Dimensional Fabricators down the road for 45 years. But because of the potential contaminants in the water flooding in from the Mamaroneck River seeping into the stone and granite in his business, he has to get rid of it all.
"We sustained a three-quarter-of-a-million-dollar loss in our building. Take another quarter of a million dollars out of my pocket. How many people could actually handle that kind of loss in two years?" Cardone said.
He said he came into work unprepared because he claims he was never notified of the potential flood damage. However, Mamaroneck Mayor Tom Murphy said the town did all it could to warn residents and business owners.
"We sent out emails, texts, Facebook posts about it last night. We didn't know the intensity that it was going to be, but we certainly warned people. We made reverse 911 calls," Murphy said.
Dramatic rescues were made throughout Mamaroneck. Other parts of Westchester County were under several feet of floodwater. The Mamaroneck River is known to flood parts of the village, which received about $100 million from the Army Corps of Engineers two years ago after the remnants of Hurricane Ida for projects to prevent this type of flooding.
"It'll be at the Ward Avenue Bridge. We'll be replacing the Ward Avenue Bridge. They start from the bottom of the watershed and they work their way up. It's happening, but I know it's not happening as fast as everybody wants," Murphy said.
The four-phase project is set to start at the end of the year or early next year and is expected to take five years. The Red Cross is stationed at Mamaroneck High School and is expecting to take care of 22 displaced families.
As for Castillo, the single mom of a teen girl, she's working hard to instill some optimism in her.
"I was telling her, 'You're fine, I'm fine. We can fix this with time," Castillo said.
The goal for Castillo is to pump out enough water to prevent it from reaching the circuit breakers of her home.
Mayor Murphy said he has been in touch with FEMA.