TOWN OF LEWISTON, N.Y. (WKBW) — Heavy rain dumped more than 4 inches of water on the Town of Lewiston Sunday, flooding basements, backyards and neighborhoods — and leaving some residents dealing with a second major flood in less than a week.
Along Swann Road, Jeffrey Miller and his family tell 7 News they had to scramble to move birds and cows to higher ground on their small farm.
"It hit the peak of the road, and we were waiting. We were walking around, and it was above our knees, so it was slow going everywhere," Miller said.
Miller says he had to act fast to protect his animals.
"We had to put everything up in the haylofts in the barn because they couldn't have survived in the water that long," Miller said.
As of Monday, the area where the farm's geese and ducks are kept remained flooded, even as other parts of the property had receded.
Miller has lived on Swann Road for 25 years. His father-in-law, George Brown, has lived on the road for 62 years. Both say the flooding is getting worse and blame recent changes to the local drainage system.
"We didn't have this in the past. We had a large barn out here, and it never got flooded. But they replaced the culverts both on the east side of the property and on the west side. And when they did that, they downsized them so they don't carry the volume of water that they used to," Brown said.
Brown described the scale of the drainage problem.
"But the volume of water that did not move through those culverts was just enormous," Brown said.
Miller also described how changes at nearby farmlands could also be causing the flooding.
“Some farmlands had erased a couple of their hedgerows in the farm in the big fields next to us, and it basically the hedgerows used to stop the rain from flushing up to the front of the road, but they cleared them out of the way, so now everything just gets rushed up to up to the drainage system and overwhelms it,” Miller said.
Town Supervisor Steve Broderick acknowledged the farm's history of flooding issues.
"I've been the supervisor 11 years now, and that particular farm had issues 11 years ago, and our highway superintendent worked on a local ditch to try and relieve some of it. And you know they've had some problems the last couple of years, so that's kind of been a notorious spot right there. It's right next to the town highway garage, so we're well aware of the situation, and we're looking for ways to mediate that," Broderick said.
WATCH: Heavy rain caused widespread flooding across the Town of Lewiston
Broderick said Sunday's flooding was town-wide and that officials are still tallying how many homes were affected.
"It was everywhere: Town of Niagara, Town of Lewiston, City of Niagara Falls, Lockport got it. It was just a bad day for the area," Broderick said. "Basically town-wide."
The supervisor noted Swann Road has had a history of having some flooding problems.
He also said other neighborhoods, including Morgan Farms, Hewitt Drive in Brookside, and at the edge of the town, all dealt with flooding Sunday.
Town crews have been working around the clock to get ditches flowing again.
Miller tells me his basement was also flooded for the second time in a week. "The basement totally flooded, so everything's gone. We've got to rent a dumpster and do the cleanout, fun, fun, fun," declared Miller.
The supervisor said if anyone has problems, they should contact him.
"Any resident that contacts me or our highway superintendent, we're more than I return every phone call. There's not a phone call that doesn't get returned. So I would gladly meet with them," Broderick said.
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