Drainage ditches dug after man floods for third time in five months
BATON ROUGE - Last week, 2 On Your Side met a man who has flooded three times in five months. The problem? Inadequate drainage along South Flannery Road. A week later, a crew was in the area addressing his concerns.
A crew with heavy machinery worked to dig out a ditch and fix a drainage headache that worried Edmund Greene.
"This whole entire area floods when it gets a light rain," Green said. "Doesn't even have to be a heavy storm."
Greene owns a fourplex in the area and it's flooded three times in five months. Each time he mops, removes the baseboards, flooring, appliances and cabinets. While his troubles sprung a leak in the last few months, his concerns have been around since he bought the place in 2021. That's when he first contacted the parish.
He said he had lost faith in the government to provide a service they said they'd provide in 2022. Some of that faith might be restored now, since the ditches are finally being addressed.
City-Parish Transportation and Drainage Director Fred Raiford says the goal is to get the water out of the area as quickly as possible. At the front of Greene's property, the ditch appears to be flat and non-existent. As Greene understood it they had no grading and the water just sat there, filling up his property and seeping through the front doors.
"All that's going to be addressed through the contractor that we were able to fund through the American Rescue Act fund dollars," Raiford said.
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Those dollars have been hard at work in Baton Rouge. They must be spent by 2024.
The project should take a couple of weeks to complete.