Qns. nabe hip deep in raw sewage
CITY PUTS BLAME ON AREA RESIDENTS DUMPING GREASE IN THE PIPES
Raw, smelly sewage gurgled into hundreds of homes in Queens Saturday, filling basements several feet deep with stinky water the city’s pipes were supposed to carry away.
Between 200 and 300 homes were affected in a 15-square block swath of South Jamaica just north of Kennedy Airport and the Belt Parkway, city officials said.
Environmental Protection Commissioner Vincent Sapienza — who oversees the city sewer system — said the cause appeared to be people pouring grease down their drains.
“This time of year we get a lot of grease blockages in sewers from residents that discharge grease," he said. "We’re under the assumption that it’s that, but we’re still working to clear it.”
The grease clog appeared to be “on the very large sewer that collects the drainage from this area,” Sapienza said speaking to reporters near the intersection of Inwood St. and 133rd Ave., the epicenter of the calamity.
Nobody should touch the stinky water, and flooded homes need to be professionally cleaned, a Department of Environmental Protection spokesman said.
“This is terrible. This is an atrocity,” said Sue Chong, who has lived in her home for 11 years. "The whole basement is flooded. The cold weather is only going to make it worse.”
“If you step into my basement it’s about knee deep in sewage. It’s going to have to be completely redone," said Ricardo McKenzie, 39, who lives on Inwood St.
There was little hope of a quick resolution to the problem, which seemed to start with a water-main break early Saturday on Rockaway Blvd. and 150th St. Water rushed into several streets but the real problem turned out to be foulsmelling sewage that gushed into basements.
Leron Harmon said his basement apartment on Inwood St. started to fill with sewage about 4:30 a.m.
“It’s a fully furnished apartment down there, and it’s swimming," Harmon said. “I smelled the odor first then I went to the bathroom and my foot is in water.”
When Harmon tried to snake his drains, the problem got worse. “Everything just came out like a waterfall. Progressively every 15 to 20 minutes, water was going up two or three inches.”
It was so bad that some families were told not to sleep in their homes Saturday night, authorities said.
“We are working right now to find hotel rooms for those who would like to stay somewhere else," said Office of Emergency Management Commissioner Deanne Criswell.
Emergency workers set up an shelter at a local school, said Freddi Goldstein, Mayor de Blasio’s press secretary.