Flooding readiness being assessed at Chatham Court

PORTLAND >> A design professional is reviewing options to prevent a recurrence of flooding at the Chatham Court housing complex.

The prolonged downpour on Aug. 11 caused “major flooding” in the five-building housing complex off Riverside Avenue. The storm, which saw five to six inches of rain fall on the town in two hours, also caused flooding in several town buildings, including the Senior Center/Food Bank, the Buck-Foreman building, which houses police headquarters, and the Brownstone Intermediate School.

The most intense flooding at Chatham Court took place in the largest of the five apartment buildings, the one that contains 17 units, housing Authority Executive Director Jacqueline Frazee said Friday. A combination of factors helped to exacerbate the flooding in that building, Frazee said in addition to the heavy volume of rain that fell that night.

That particular building “gets water from all the properties around us,” Frazee said.

A slope also runs behind the buildings in the complex, Frazee said, and several of the five catch basins on the property were blocked, either by roots which had pushed their way into the drainage pipes or by discarded bottles and/or cans, Frazee said.

Frazee said a design professional is working with the authority “to see how we can avoid “any repeats of the flooding in the future.”

As the water surged into the first floor of the apartments in the building, the problem was made worse by a power outage in the building, Frazee said. The fire department responded to the complex to provide emergency lighting as residents left their apartments and gathered in the community center on the complex, Frazee said.

A team from Servpro, which serves as the restoration company for the housing authority, was on hand by 2:30 a.m. to help remove water from the apartments, Frazee said.

Early on the morning of the 12th, Servpro crews returned with fans to help dry out the apartments, Frazee said.

Less than a week after the storm, a resident posted comments on the Authority’s Facebook page critical of the agency’s response to the storm and flooding.

The resident said his “belongings were ruined. Our dryer is broken, shelves water logged, bikes are running, TV shorted out.” Everything the resident had stored in the basement “was ruined. Kids pictures and countess other memories are GONE!” The resident said Housing Authority officials “hadn’t even come over to see how we were.” They didn’t offer us an alternative place to stay.

“Not even an ‘I’m sorry’ just an ‘It’s not our fault,’” the resident said. The post was later removed. In response, Frazee said the town’s building inspector Lincoln White had inspected the apartments in the wake of the storm and that maintenance staff had visited each apartment.

White said Monday he found the apartments to be habitable, that the water was shallow, and that steps had been taken to remove moisture by drilling holes into the stud bays to dry them out.”

“I thought everyone did a great job,” Frazee said, referring first and foremost to the maintenance staff as well as to the fire department and Servpro. “I know many people were upset because the fans and dehumidifiers were hot and noisy. But we had the Community Center open for people to go to during the day.”

Frazee said they really “had no choice” but to try to dry out the apartments.

Frazee also said she had visited the basement of the building and did not find anything like the damage the tenant had suggested in his Facebook posting.

One member of the maintenance staff who spent much of the night of the 11th working at the site “was very upset” about the critical comments in the posting, she said.

The design professional was on site on Thursday, Frazee said. A company was engaged to remove roots from the drainage system, Frazee said Monday.

In addition, 18 pine trees on the complex site that “are not in the greatest shape” are scheduled to be taken down next month, Frazee said. In part, that is because of the root infiltration, she said.

“We were also worried they could come in a storm,” she said.

The authority is a separate stand-alone entity, Frazee said. The Board of Selectmen appoints its members, “but the authority operates independently of the town,” First Selectwoman Susan S. Bransfield said.

“I know many people were upset because the fans and dehumidifiers were hot and noisy. But we had the Community Center open for people to go to during the day.” — Housing Authority Executive Director Jacqueline Frazee