ATLANTA — Some homeowners have flooding concerns ahead of possible strong storms headed toward the metro overnight Tuesday.
Neighbors along Redford Drive in southeast Atlanta told Channel 2’s Tom Jones that every time there's heavy rain, their backyards flood. Residents told Jones they have no idea what's causing the problem.
“Don't really feel good when it starts raining,” said Ethel Johnson.
Johnson showed Jones pictures of what the 89-year-old’s backyard looks like when they get heavy rain.
Water covers the yard, causing her to get nervous when a heavy rain comes through.
Her son who lives with her gets nervous, too.
“It looks just like a river back here. It's starting to flood,” son Walter Harris told Jones.
Harris said the flooding gets so bad in his backyard, “It's like you could put a boat back here.”
And it's not just his backyard.
“It's every house on this street on the left-hand side,” Harris said.
Those home include neighbor Martina Miller’s.
“We just stay in the house and know not to go in the back because we'll float away,” Miller said.
Harris says the problem started the first of the year. When it rains hard, the water fills homeowners' backyards sending debris floating and tearing down fences.
Several neighbors have had to replace soggy furnaces.
“It has gotten so bad that we had to move our furnace inside the house,” Miller said. “I don't know what the problem is. We don't know what's going on out here.”
All the neighbors know is when it rains, their backyards turn into a lake.
Johnson says it keeps her and her son up at night,
“Sometimes I tell him to give me a sleeping pill,” Johnson said.
Neighbors say the city came out to take a look at the problem and is now studying the issue.