Residents in New Rochelle neighborhood frustrated over constant street flooding

Warren Mitchell, who lives at the end of the street, said his family's property floods severely whenever it rains hard.

Jade Nash

Aug 18, 2024, 8:12 PM

Updated 24 days ago

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Residents who live on Whitewood Avenue in New Rochelle told News 12 on Sunday that they are frustrated by constant flooding on their street.
Warren Mitchell, who lives at the end of the street, said his family's property floods severely whenever it rains hard.
"My mom's over it. She goes to the city about it, my dad's over it, everybody's kind of over it, but we get it the worst, and it's just annoying," Mitchell said.
Mitchell said the flooding is so common that his family has their cleanup method perfected down to a science.
"Stuff always gets destroyed. We're constantly throwing stuff out," Mitchell said.
His next-door neighbor Veronica Joyner said she's forced to do the same.
Joyner said she had to walk through flood waters on Sunday to move her car so it wouldn't get damaged. She added that she just lost one last week due flooding.
"So, we have to junk the cars. There's no recourse. The town is telling us, 'Oh,we have drainage problems, there's a capital project, it's going to take 10 years,' so what do we do in the meantime?" she questioned.
While city workers were spotted on Sunday working on a body of water near her home, Joyner said she's now considering taking legal action.
"I want them to either rectify the problem or they can buy me out because I'm getting old. I just retired. I'm 62 years old," Joyner said. "I cannot deal with this."
The city's department of public works commissioner issued News 12 a statement that says in part, "The issues in this neighborhood were identified as priorities for flood mitigation in our Citywide drainage study."