Hundreds of Queens Families Left Homeless by Sewage Flooding With No End in Sight
Sewage fills the basements of South Ozone Park residents on Inwood Street in South Ozone Park. (Jeff Bachner/for New York Daily News)
(IBXNews) - Residents of South Jamaica, Queens, did not have much to be thankful for on Sunday after a clogged water line caused hundreds of homes in the neighborhood to be flooded with raw, pungent sewage over the holiday weekend.
Locals were desperate for answers as the problem persisted for a second day, but officials from the Department of Environmental Protection, which manages the city’s sewer system, told community members who were left homeless by the flooding feces that they did not know when the issue would be fixed.
“We are alive and okay but everything is gone,” said Sani Lakudi, 50, an Uber driver who lives in the neighborhood. “My TV, printer, computer — they are ruined. We stayed up all night pumping water. We had to do what we had to do or the water would have destroyed everything.”
“Nobody from the city has come to me,” Lakudi added. “We are doing all the work ourselves.”