"You feel kind of helpless," explained Jarvis Young who lives with his mother on Cayuga Island in Niagara Falls. The basement of their home flooded from severe rain storms Monday causing significant damage.
"It just kept raining and the sub-pump couldn't take all the water and burned itself out," Young explained. The flooded basement has cost the family more than $500 so far and that number will go up as they work to clean out and replace the carpet and other damages.
Flooded basements are nothing new to neighbors in the Cayuga Island neighborhood of Niagara Falls. Young said this is the third time his house flooded during a major thunder storm.
Brigitte Shackleton's basement didn't flood Monday, her sub-pump was able to handle the rain storm, but she doesn't get so lucky every time.
"I felt very relieved because twice before my basement has been flooded," she said. Her fear during every storm is for the power to go out.
"Once we have a power outage with weather like that we are doomed here," she said. "No pump will pump."
