Photo by Stephen McGee
By Olivia Lewis
When Cierra Mangal answered the phone at 2:45 a.m. Sunday morning, she had no idea how much rain had hit Detroit or that the water was still rising.
“The water had to be at least three-and-a-half to 4 feet high,” she told BridgeDetroit on Monday. “It was ridiculous.”
Mangal, a marketing professional in Detroit, was answering calls from her grandmother, who lives in a senior living apartment complex on Detroit’s eastside. Mangal said her grandma, who is in her 70s, was scared and wanted to escape her flooding first-floor apartment. The grandmother had called the site manager, the fire department and the police — but the lines were busy, and Mangal, her emergency contact, was the first to respond.
Detroit saw almost 6 inches of rain last weekend, inundating the city’s infrastructure and water sewage systems, forcing the governor to declare a state of emergency. Freeways, neighborhood streets, homes and businesses flooded. Cars were abandoned in swamp-like rivers along the freeway while parked vehicles drifted down city streets, carried by the stormwater filled with tree limbs and debris.
On Wednesday, piles of trash continued to line block after block of neighborhood streets, and some homes are still without air-conditioning, power, and hot or clean water. The City also reported a water advisory for Morningside, East English Village, and Cornerstone Village neighborhoods due to brown, rusty water in taps and toilets.
For the rest of the story, check out BridgeDetroit.
