SAN FRANCISCO (KRON) — Major rains this weekend left a major mess in parts of the Bay Area, especially inside a home in San Francisco’s Bernal Heights.
The homeowners believe the damage to their nursery is a result of the failure of the city’s infrastructure.
Chris Loenthal showed KRON4’s Maureen Kelly around the damage in his Heyman Avenue home.
It happened Saturday.
When they came home to find stormwater coming up through their tub and sink, drenching the floor of his 15-month-old son’s nursery.
A water remediation company has already ripped up the carpets and throw rugs are drenched.
Industrial grade dehumidifiers are running, and Loenthal and his wife are assessing that damage that they fear contaminated their home with sewage.
“It’s terrifying and as a new mother, to think that toxic material has come up into my home, especially where my son sleeps, it’s terrifying,” says mother Megan Bolton.
They say they called 3-1-1 and were underwhelmed by the response.
“I was told someone came out, [but] they saw no active signs of flooding from the street. They did a spot check and they left. So no one actually looked in the sewer system to ensure there was a blockage on there ” Bolton said.
She says her concern is that the city is not allocating enough resources to make sure the sewage systems in San Francisco are functional.
Their plumber came out and took a look
A spokesperson with San Francisco Public Utilities didn’t have specifics on their complaint but says their crews were called out to deal with 400 calls of flooding over the weekend with workers clearing catch basins to try to prevent clogged storm drains.
But the deluge brought too much water in too short of time — that caused major problems at 15th and Wawona in West Portal, where rainwater flooded the garges of several homes.
That area is flood prone and the city is in the design phase of a capital improvement project that will help that area deal better with big rains.