Stoney Creek couple says city negligence to blame for flood damage to home

A couple in Stoney Creek are wondering how they’re going to fight Hamilton City Hall to make their home completely livable again.

Their house was badly damaged by a flood earlier this month, and they say it is because the city was negligent.

Mark Taylor and Leann Dick moved into their home months ago, planned to be their forever home.

But that dream has turned into a nightmare.

“And we put all we had to get this home and we don’t have anything to fix this home, we don’t have anything for lawyers and like, this is insane,” said Dick. “Like, this is it.”

The storm that hit this region April 2, left their house a disaster zone.

Their basement, bedrooms, and living areas were all damaged.

“We had basically a 10-inch deep river flowing on either side of our house, for about three hours,” said Taylor.

In the basement, water damaged the flooring, walls, furniture, the furnace and water heater.

The couple say the flooding caused tens of thousands of dollars in damages if not more and homeowners insurance doesn’t cover overland flooding.

“Like, I’ve lost everything, like I’m not joking,” said Dick. “I could barely save anything down there.”

The couple said they wrote to the city, but they say the city told them that they’re on a flood plain, and the flooding is “their bad luck.”

But the couple says the city is not doing its job.

The problem centres on local culverts, designed to drain farm fields in the area and carry water under the road.

Taylor and Dick say the main problem is that the culverts were blocked by overgrowth and the water backed up over the road.

They say there should be enough room for six feet of water to go through the culverts, but they haven’t been cleared over the years.

The couple says the city told them it was not responsible.

“If you’re gonna have city folks live here and you’re going to collect property taxes, and you know it’s a flood plain, well that’s even more reason to make sure you take care of the culverts and the infrastructure in the area,” said Taylor.

CHCH News reached out to city staff, who said that they were looking into it.

There was no response from the councillor for the area Brad Clark.

“At least send somebody out here to see what happened and say ‘hey, did we do our job here?’ ‘Is there something more than could be done?’,” said Taylor.

Taylor and Dick continue to wonder how they’re going to put their home back together.

“And like, all my stuff is gone and I’m just so, so upset,” said Dick. “I’m sad, I’m heartbroken, I’m devastated.”

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