City meets with Peoplestown residents to solve flooding problem

ATLANTA — Residents in Atlanta's Peoplestown community met with officials from the city's watershed management department to discuss possible solutions to a massive flooding problem plaguing their neighborhood.

Channel 2's Sophia Choi was at the meeting where Atlanta Watershed was put on the hot seat.

Neighbors told Choi they feel like they've been neglected by the city.

"We've got a lot of people working on this pretty much around the clock," said Janet Ward from Atlanta Watershed Management

Ward told residents at the meeting engineers are still trying to figure out what is causing homes in the community to flood, over and over again.

Neighbors said they've been dealing with an overflow of water and raw sewage for years every time there's a heavy downpour.

"I've seen the destruction of my property. I've seen the destruction of the health of the people in my neighborhood," neighbor Gary Lamb said.

Neighbor Kevin Lynch showed Channel 2 Action News home video he took of water gushing out of a city line and into homes and yards.

"We're fed up. We've had it up to here. We can't take any more of this. This is disgusting. You cannot live like this," Lynch said, talking about how his basement filled with what he says is a combination of storm water and sewage earlier this week.

The city said crews checked it out, and found no evidence of sewage, just storm water runoff.

But neighbors said over the years, they've seen and smelled enough to know the problem is with the sewer.

"Because there was 20-foot plume of water coming out of the sewer hole. It blew the manhole covers off. So doesn't that tell you there's a problem?" Lynch said.

At Saturday's meeting, the city promised a fix.

"We're committed either way, whether it's storm water related or waste water related, to find out what's going on. We owe that to you guys, we're here to serve you," Reginald Wells from Atlanta Watershed Management said.

During the meeting, the city offered cleanup crews to help neighbors who had some flooding this past week.

Neighbors said that's nice, but they're still angry it's taken so long for the city to pay any attention to them.

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WSBTV