Blessed Sacrament School looks to combat flooding

Heavy rain last Thursday evening spared Blessed Sacrament School from flooding, but a storm a few weeks ago didn’t.

About five inches of rain fell on Valley Stream in an hour span on Aug. 29, flooding Rose Avenue to the point where water spilled into the Catholic elementary school. The Rev. Peter Dugandzic, pastor of Blessed Sacrament Parish, said the damage was extensive.

Much of the first floor was under two inches of water, Dugandzic said. Several bookshelves and desks were damaged and had to be thrown out. Floor tiles came up in several rooms, and carpets were soaked. “It certainly made for a real panic,” he said, noting that the flood occurred less than two weeks before the start of the school year. “Fortunately, it did come together.”

Dugandzic said that the tile floors in four classrooms, as well as the teachers’ lounge, had to be entirely replaced, as did much of the carpet in the principal’s office. He said they also had to throw out several area rugs that were in classrooms. “You can’t leave anything that’s going to have a moldy or a mildewy smell,” he said.

Crews worked right up until the day before school started to get the building ready for students. Dugandzic said teachers were unable to come in early to decorate their classrooms.

Water often builds up on Rose Avenue where the road dips down near the school. Village officials say they are aware of the problem there, but that the flooding on Aug. 29 was the exception, rather than the norm.

Highway Supervisor Tim Leahy said that when the storm hit, it was high tide so local streams had reduced capacity for storm water. Additionally, he said, there was a high volume of rain in a short period of time, and the ground was so dry from a lack of rain during the summer, that water couldn’t soak in fast enough. “That combination proved to be a problem,” he said.

Leahy said the storm overwhelmed the two storm water pipes which serve the entire area south of Hendrickson Avenue between Central and East avenues. “As far as we know,” he said, “our system is OK. It is maintained periodically and under normal circumstances there isn’t a problem. I think it was just volume.”

Village Clerk Vinny Ang said that there used to be one storm pipe serving the area, but a second was constructed when the King Kullen shopping center was built on Merrick Road. He said the owner of the complex has an obligation to maintain the pipes, and he will ask to have it checked for anything that could be causing a water backup.

However, Ang said, there is not necessarily anything wrong the pipes, and agrees with Leahy that the storm water system was likely overwhelmed that day. “That was one of those exceptional storms that comes along so rarely,” he said.

Dugandzic said it was another close call on Sept. 16 when the same storm that led to two tornadoes in Queens also dropped a lot of rain on Valley Stream in a short period of time. He said the street was flooded, with water coming up to the sidewalk. “It came that close to almost coming in again,” he said.

If the Aug. 29 storm was an isolated incident, Dugandzic said he wouldn’t be worried. But he said he has witnessed Rose Avenue flood time and time again, and there have been too many close calls. He said the school has bought sandbags to be used if another heavy rainstorm is forecast. “We’ll probably set those in front of the doors,” he said. “What else can we do?”

Dugandzic said that most of the damage from the Aug. 29 storm will be covered by insurance. He said he will seek the advice of engineers if there are any simple things that can be done to fight flooding, but said the parish doesn’t have enough money for any big fixes. He said he hopes the village looks into the problem and finds a solution to the storm water buildups on Rose Avenue. “Obviously,” he said, “something’s got to be done.”