Water woes continue for homeowners after heavy rain floods basements, yards

Recent heavy rains created quite the headache for people across the metro as basements and backyards fill with floodwaters.

Stacy Paoli returned to her Lakeville home from vacation Monday morning to find her backyard had essentially merged with the nearby pond. That water then cascaded into the family’s basement through a lower window.

“You could barely see the fence line,” Paoli said. “It was deep.”

Connie Martin, Stacy’s mother, owns the home and is now working with her insurance company to repair the damage in her property. It also flooded her neighbor’s yard and left a soggy impression from where the water rushed across the lawn next door.

“He’s lived here 25 years, and he said he’s never seen anything like it,” Martin said of her neighbor.

“I think it was a freak accident; a lot of debris a lot of muck came up with the fast rain and plugged the drains,” Paoli said.

With the pond’s drains unclogged and the water gone, this family is now – like many others - cleaning up their basement.

"I'm nervous, overwhelmed, scared of what the insurance is going to do, worried about my house...mold is a big problem," Martin said.

Paoli and her family are sorting through the soggy mess, salvaging what they can from her water-logged home.

“There were pictures of my dad who passed away four years ago, and I haven’t been able to go through them, so I definitely feel for the people who go through this,” she said.

An official with Servpro estimates they’ve received around 80 calls for broken or failed sump pumps since last night alone in the Twin Cities metro.