Flooding waters wreak woes

Daisy Walker, 84, has seen many things during the past 50 years she has lived on the bottom floor of her two-family home on Springfield Boulevard in Queens Village. However, the flooding and subsequent damage that occurred following the torrential rain that doused parts of Queens last week was the worst she has ever seen.
“Everything is damaged,” Walker said. “It makes me sick to think about it. It’s terrible.”
Walker said the nightmare began on Wednesday morning, July 18, with rainwater seeping into her newly renovated basement, and, when the rain subsided, more than three feet of water engulfed her basement.
“I have never anything like this,” she said fighting back tears. “This is terrible, the very worst.”
Neighbors helped drain the standing water, but almost everything in Walker’s basement including furniture and priceless mementos sustained considerable damage.
City Councilmember Leroy Comrie, who represents areas in Southeast Queens, said his office has fielded dozens of calls from reporting flood damage, something that Comrie said happens too often during rainstorms.
“Across neighborhoods like St. Albans, Rosedale, Hollis and Queens Village, residents are participating in the annual practice of placing their destroyed mementos and belongings on the curb,” Comrie said.
However, neighborhoods in Southeast Queens were not the only ones that experienced flooding and damage during the storm with residents in parts of Flushing, Bayside, Glendale and Elmhurst all reporting damage.
In a letter sent to Mayor Michael Bloomberg and Governor Eliot Spitzer, Marshall asked the leaders to declare parts of Queens a disaster area.
Meanwhile, Queens State Senate Minority Leader Malcolm Smith is urging constituents who have experienced property damage to file claims against the city through the Comptroller’s Office Bureau of Law and Adjustment. Forms are available online at www.comptroller.nyc.gov.