Northeast Michigan residents face flooding in wake of storm
News Photo by Kayla Wikaryasz On Thursday, ServiceMaster employees in Alpena are seen standing next to generators they are taking to people’s homes to pump water from basements. Co-owners Kathy and Randy Shupert explained how hard their employees are working to serve their customers and the work they are doing to serve the community in the wake of the recent ice storm.
ALPENA — Across Alpena and surrounding counties, residents have endured days of freezing rain and power outages. Many residents not only had to grapple with the devastation the recent ice storm caused their communities, but also had to deal with basement flooding.
On Monday, Alpena resident Barb Beamish hooked up her generator to her sump pump so it could start pumping water from the basement. Beamish said the sump pump pumped out about 400 gallons of water, and by Tuesday, ServiceMaster was able to pump out another 200 gallons.
As of Wednesday, Beamish’s power had been restored, though she recognizes how fortunate she was.
“I feel guilty saying we have power because there are so many people without power right now,” Beamish said. “I think our community has pulled together.”
Another Alpena resident, Ruth Gray, said that water began flooding her basement once her sump pump system’s battery died. Gray had to call SERVPRO to try and salvage her basement.
Courtesy Photo A SERVPRO crew is seen in the flooded driveway of Ruth Gray, an Alpena resident. She explained that SERVPRO pumped water out of her basement for two days before water filled it back up again.
“The water was coming in at about a foot an hour and I had seven feet of water in my basement,” she said. “SERVPRO pumped (out water) for two days.”
Gray said that though power has been restored to residents on her street, the flooding damage was extensive enough that power has yet to be restored to her home. And even after SERVPRO pumped water out of Gray’s basement, it filled up once again.
“My circuit breaker is underwater, so I am displaced,” Gray said. “It’s hard. Insurance has been great for me already, but for those that didn’t have it, I feel horrible. I just moved in two months ago and everything, I mean everything, I owned other than the basics upstairs was down there.”
Like Beamish, Gray noted the work the community has done to ensure people are cared for amidst this crisis.
“I will say I am beyond impressed with the spirit of this community in helping,” Gray said. “So many have stepped up to help or do what they can. It’s impressive.”
Though Northeastern Michigan residents are no strangers to flooding, Alpena’s city engineer Steve Shultz explained that the amount of ice and snow Alpena and surrounding areas received is the main problem.
However, Shultz stressed that just because there is water in a homeowner’s basement, it doesn’t mean that it is sewer water. According to Shultz, most likely the water is groundwater that has seeped through the walls of a basement that was not properly sealed.
According to Shultz, Alpena has 14 lift stations to ensure that wastewater is properly pumped away from roads, residential areas, etc. These lift stations are currently running with generators till the city is fully up and running, and Shultz’s employees are required to maintain these generators — checking them, fueling them, and making sure they are operating properly. This means that they are unable to respond to the influx of calls about flooding in the city of Alpena.
“Taking the calls and responding to them individually is not possible,” Shultz said.
Shultz explained that if it’s an emergency, individuals with flooding should contact a plumber instead of waiting for the city to respond. In Shultz’s opinion, most of the calls are cases in which the city is not required to fix (i.e., basement flooding is a result of groundwater rather than a utility).
In regard to maintaining lift stations, Shultz was not confident that the city would be removing the generators quickly, despite most Alpena residents and businesses having power.
“We are not out of the woods yet,” Shultz said.
Randy Shupert, co-owner of ServiceMaster in Alpena, also noted how the recovery process after the recent ice storm will be a long haul.
Shupert explained that a majority of calls for flooded basements started coming in over the weekend, beginning on Saturday. He said that ServiceMaster was receiving up to 100 calls a day, and they still have a backlog of customers to attend to.
Though some jobs can be resolved in a day, Shupert noted that each job has the potential to range from 40-100 hours of labor.
“I have never dealt with anything of this level,” Shupert said.
Chris Loesch, operations manager at ServiceMaster, explained that downed power lines and fallen trees have hindered their ability to do the work they need to do. Loesch explained that ServiceMaster has been taking generators to sites so that they can run equipment to pump water out of flooded basements.
Still, the storm has presented challenges that ServiceMaster can’t necessarily manage, like removing trees that are blocking access to homes.
“Right now, we are staying in our lane,” Loesch said.
According to Shupert, ServiceMaster is operating in a “catastrophic response” which includes three phases. The first phase is removing the water; the second phase is drying the space out; the final phase is the removal of any damaged items.
It is also important for these basements to be sanitized. Co-owner of ServiceMaster, Kathy Shupert, explained that the water flooding these basements is considered to be contaminated, which makes the cleanup process complicated.
Randy Shupert said that it will take the ServiceMaster crews a few days just to complete the first phase of cleanup because of the magnitude of cases they are dealing with. However, it may take months before they attend to all the damage. He explained that people who have seasonal homes in the area may not be fully aware of the damage that has happened while they’ve been away.
Further, he explained that ServiceMaster has been attending to calls by priority. This means that ServiceMaster accounts for the severity of a call, and if there are elderly or infants living in the home, for example.
Kristi Plowman, general manager at ServiceMaster, and Danielle Dault, who is in charge of billing, praised the work of ServiceMaster employees who, many of them, were without power at their own homes while attending to customers with flooded basements.
“Our employees are working so hard,” Plowman said. “We are really proud of everyone we have here.”
Shupert noted that to deal with the number of calls they have received they are shipping in more equipment. Additionally, ServiceMaster has taken steps to provide for the community in the meantime by bringing firewood, groceries, and prescriptions to people while also providing charging stations.
“What can we do to be a good neighbor…that’s where our heart is,” Randy Shupert said.
Kayla Wikaryasz can be reached at 989-358-5688 or kwikaryasz@TheAlpenaNews.com.
-
- News Photo by Kayla Wikaryasz On Thursday, ServiceMaster employees in Alpena are seen standing next to generators they are taking to people’s homes to pump water from basements. Co-owners Kathy and Randy Shupert explained how hard their employees are working to serve their customers and the work they are doing to serve the community in the wake of the recent ice storm.
-
- Courtesy Photo A SERVPRO crew is seen in the flooded driveway of Ruth Gray, an Alpena resident. She explained that SERVPRO pumped water out of her basement for two days before water filled it back up again.
Local News
‘Chitty Chitty Bang Bang’ opening Thursday in Rogers City
PHOTO: Holcim lends a helping hand
Gov. Gretchen Whitmer applauds Alpena Meijer staff for becoming a positive hub for the community during storm
Fatal house fire on Huron Beach Road remains under investigation
On Wednesday at 2:16 a.m., the Alpena Township Fire Department was dispatched for an unknown fire on Huron Beach ...
Pets kept warm through local community efforts