Norwood residents rally to demand action about frequent flooding

Jennifer Pence's parents moved to Elm Avenue in Norwood 40 years ago. Two weeks after they settled into their new house, it flooded.

Since then, it has just kept happening. The water rose up in their basement twice on Wednesday.

"It's sewage water. You can smell it," Pence said. "After it comes up, there's an unhealthy stench in the air."

Pence and her neighborhoods are rallying at Norwood City Hall Friday at 1 p.m. to demand action. In Pence's case, she'll be making the same demand her parents made for decades: fix the problem.

She said her parents were part of a class-action lawsuit years ago about the same issue, and yet the water continues to pour into the home where she now lives to take care of her 85-year-old father.

"The City of Norwood points the finger at MSD and MSD points the finger back at Norwood, and no one wants to pay the money to get it fixed," Pence said. "The sewer lines are only 18-inch pipes. That might have been fine 100 years ago or even 50 or 60 years ago, but not now."

The Metropolitan Sewer District (MSD) handles wastewater management for much of Hamilton County. It handles the claims from residents about damage from sewer backups.

Norwood suffered a very heavy flood in 2016. In that flood, Pence said her home suffered $43,000 in damage. Money that MSD had to pay, even if it took them two years to do it, she said.

Pence said promises were made that issues would be addressed, but it doesn't seem like anything has been done.

"Everyone on the news was calling it a 100-year flood, but for us, it was a once or twice a summer flood," Pence said.

Every time there's a serious flood, Pence loses appliances in the basement: water heaters, washers, dryers, furnaces.

She said since the 2016 flood, they've had to replace their water heater another four times.

"It's an expensive problem and the city isn't the one paying for it," Pence said. "Wouldn't it be easier for MSD to fix it rather than keep paying out claims?"

Pence said her neighbors are all in the metaphorical boat and they want action.

"It only takes a 10-minute heavy downpour and then our street looks like a lake," Pence said. "If they don't do something soon, it's either going to be an attorney or a class action suit or both."