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Long cleanup ahead for Norwood after Sunday's flooding

Red Cross helping 30 displaced people
Posted at 11:58 PM, Aug 28, 2016
and last updated 2016-08-29 18:44:22-04

NORWOOD, Ohio -- Norwood residents are spending much of their Monday morning wringing out the remnants of Sunday night's flash-flooding. Some people are flooded out of their homes and without power.

Jeff Belle, of Norwood, lives in a ground-level apartment that was flooded. He said everything is ruined.

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"I kept trying to put it up higher and higher and higher thinking it was going to be enough, and the water just kept on coming up," Belle said.

 
 

Norwood resident Deborah Cunningham lives in a bottom floor apartment off Maple Avenue and was taking a nap when the storms rolled in. She says she got her cat and closed her window, but by the time she got to her living room, the water was gushing in from that window.

"I managed to get my mom's ashes and the urn and her picture, but I lost everything and then everybody said come on get out, get out," Cunningham said. "I was worried about my cat. The water was getting higher and higher and I ended up falling in the hallway where the water was, but I managed to get out. I'm just glad the gentleman who was left in there, that he's alive. I've never seen anything like this in my life."

 

 

 

The Red Cross sent a team that is helping about 30 displaced people.

Norwood City Schools were closed Monday, as was St. Bernard-Elmwood Place, Roger Bacon High School and Hamilton County Learning Center at Norwood. Covington Catholic was also closed Monday, but the closure was due to power outages.

In addition to flooding, travelers on I-71 were at a standstill in both directions Sunday evening. Firefighters blocked the I-71 off-ramp to Reading when a vehicle was stuck. The Norwood Lateral was also shut down for some time due to flooding.