Pumps working overtime as homeowners look to drain rising floodwater

(FOX 9) - Major flooding in the Twin Cities metro area after three days of rain is wreaking havoc in people’s backyards and basements.

One Richfield homeowner says he has to check the sump pump every hour to make sure the water level is going down.

Several homes in his area are under water, but Stan Tkach’s sump pump has been working overtime to push out 3,000 gallons of water an hour to clear the flooding.

“It could take a couple of hours to get a couple of pumps in here to pump all this stuff out, and that’s not a guarantee that it won’t happen again because the ground is still frozen and we still keep having the rain,” Tkach said. “The snow keeps on melting.”

Tkach has been going nonstop from home to home helping folks out with flooded basements. He says sump pumps and other supplies to combat rising water levels are completely sold out at local stores.

Kevin Kilian says he came down the stairs to his basement this morning at 6 a.m. to find it completely soaked. He’s been working the wet-vac and rotating towels to try and minimize the damage ever since.

“The only thing that’s slowing it down is the towels, so when I pull the towels away, you can hear it trickling like a brook,” Kilian described.

Kilian said, even though his home sits slightly lower than the others in the neighborhood, he hasn’t had flooding like this in more than 20 years.

“The power of mother nature. The power of water,” he said. “It just is what it is.”