CINCINNATI — For 23 years, Paige Scheidler’s basement was part of her home.
It was a place to relax, with a couch, a television and space to spend time with family and friends.
Then, overnight, five feet of water changed everything.
Scheidler captured the damage herself on video. Walking into the basement, she found her belongings pushed together in a pile, furniture damaged and the space she knew almost unrecognizable.
“I don’t even know where my TV is,” Scheidler said in the video.
WATCH: She lost her basement overnight. Her community helped her rebuild.
The flooding was worse than anything she had experienced before.
Scheidler said flooding began to become a major issue around 2016. Over the years, she said the problem grew worse as more homes and development came to the area.
She said she followed recommendations from the Metropolitan Sewer District of Greater Cincinnati and plumbing companies, investing about $20,000 into flood prevention measures, including a backflow preventer, rerouted downspouts and sump pumps.
But this storm overwhelmed those efforts.
The damage forced her to throw away furniture, appliances and other belongings from the basement.
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Going forward, she said the space will look different.
“I will no longer have furniture or anything in the basement,” Scheidler said. “This will just be for storage and laundry.”
But while the flood changed her home, it also showed her the strength of the neighborhood around her.
Across Camberwell Road, neighbors spent the day cleaning out garages, removing damaged items and helping each other recover.
At Scheidler’s home, four to six friends and family members showed up with trash bags, shovels and helping hands.
“Luckily, I have the most amazing family and the most amazing friends that are here getting dirty and disgusting with me today,” Scheidler said.
The flooding also impacted nearby businesses, including HVAC company Apollo Home, where employees found a water line about four feet high running through their office.
But Mike Knudsen said their focus wasn’t on their own building.
“It’s just an office building. Our customers’ homes, that’s the bigger deal,” Knudsen said.
For Scheidler, the cleanup is far from over.
But after losing so much, she said the people around her reminded her what matters most.
“As frustrating as this is, it’s stuff and it can be fixed and it can be replaced,” Scheidler said. “This is still my home. It’s my community.”
