After torrential rain Sunday flooded parts of Middle Village, residents are demanding action after seeing their neighborhood inundated for the second time in less than a week and the fourth time in less than a month.
The flooding around Penelope Avenue and Pleasantview Street left residents frustrated and exhausted as water once again entered streets and homes.
“They did the streets a few years ago,” said homeowner Nick Lauda. “They ripped up for months and months and months. They put new pipes in, bigger pipes, and it’s worse than ever. It’s just ridiculous. This street floods. The sewer cap over there comes up, and it’s like a geyser.”
Fuad Alovic, a Middle Village homeowner, added that many worry about flooded basements in the area.
“We also have a sump pump,” said Alovic. “But if somebody is not here or God forbid, the electric goes off, that’s automatic flooding in the basement. They don’t come to clean the drains here.”
City Council Member Phil Wong said residents in his district and across the city deserve better.
“We have rainwater with nowhere to go,” Wong said. “And then, in quite a few instances, I see raw sewage floating in part of my district, and that’s unhealthy, that’s unacceptable.”
Wong said his office was inundated with calls Sunday from residents who shared videos showing flooding inside and outside their homes.
In response, Wong sent a three-page letter to Mayor Zohran Mamdani calling on the city to address the increase in flooding incidents. He is asking the city to redirect hundreds of millions of dollars toward the Department of Environmental Protection and critical resiliency projects, including funds he said were diverted from the Water Board and placed in the city’s general fund.
“I told the mayor he has to spend the money to upgrade and repair our system,” Wong said.
Wong is also calling for more frequent catch basin and sewer cleaning, additional drainage and water retention infrastructure and a long-term expansion of the city’s sewer capacity.
Residents said they hope Wong’s calls for action will lead to long-term improvements.
NY1 has reached out to City Hall for comment on Wong’s letter.
The council member said that if he does not receive a response, he will follow up with the mayor and the City Council.