Heavy rain rushed in nearly a foot of water into his business.It was the covers blocking the storm drains that were put in for a Euclid water main replacement project.
“At that point I decided to remove the barriers to the storm drains to allow the water to drain myself because the contractor said that under no circumstances could they be removed throughout the duration of the project,” said Owens.As Owens shows us in a video, the streets still flooded, but the water didn’t make it to his business.
Even Euclid Councilman Wallace Tanner agreed, the devastating flood damage to local businesses could have been prevented. “There should have been some type of contingency just in case it rained,” said Councilman Tanner. “This should have been thought out during the process of this job.” So who’s responsible? The contractor, Trax Construction, who blocked the storm drains? Or the city of Euclid?“The contractor, Trax Construction placed inlet protection on the storm drains during the saw cutting off the road to prevent concrete slurry from entering the catch basins. These basins do discharge to Lake Erie and Trax Construction used inlet protection that is approved for this purpose. The basins were never completely blocked off at any time during this project.