Tropical rains flood homes in an inland Georgia neighborhood for the second time since 2016

POOLER, Ga. (AP) — The water began seeping into Keon Johnson’s house late Monday night after Tropical Storm Debby had been dumping rain nearly nonstop throughout the day.

By Tuesday morning, Johnson’s street was underwater and flooding inside his home was ankle deep. Appliances were swamped, spiders scurried in search of dry surfaces. Laundry baskets and pillows floated around the bedroom where Johnson, his wife and their 3-year-old daughter spent the night.

“We kind of just sat on the bed and watched it slowly rise,” said Johnson, 33, who works installing underground cables in the Savannah area.

Looking out at the foot-deep water still standing Wednesday in the cul-de-sac outside his home, Johnson added: “I didn’t think that this was ever going to happen again.”

For homeowners on Tappan Zee Drive in suburban Pooler west of Savannah, the drenching that Debby delivered came with a painful dose of deja vu. In October 2016, heavy rain from Hurricane Matthew overwhelmed a nearby canal and flooded several of the same homes.

Located roughly 30 miles (48 kilometers) from the Atlantic Ocean, with no creeks or rivers nearby, the inland neighborhood doesn’t seem like a high-risk location for tropical flooding.

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But residents say drainage problems have plagued their street for well over a decade, despite efforts by the local government to fix them.

“As you can see, it didn’t do anything,” said Will Alt, trudging through muddy grass that made squishing sounds in his yard as water bubbled up around his feet before wading across the street to talk with a neighbor. “It doesn’t happen too often. But when it rains and rains hard, oh, it floods.”

Debby didn’t bring catastrophic flooding to the Savannah area as forecasters initially feared. Still the storm dumped 10 inches (25.4 centimeters) Monday and Tuesday, according the National Weather Service, which predicted up to 2 inches (5 centimeters) more Wednesday. Some low-lying neighborhoods flooded, including the homes on Tappan Zee Drive.

Fortunately for Alt, Debby’s floodwaters stopped climbing in his driveway a few feet from the garage. He didn’t live on the street when Matthew struck in 2016, but said the street had flooded during a heavy rainstorm in 2020.

Before Debby arrived, soaking rains last filled the street in February, but not enough to damage any homes, said Jim Bartley, who also lives on Tappan Zee Drives.

The house Bartley rents was also spared from flooding. Two doors down, a neighbor couple were cleaning up amid waterlogged belongings in their garage. They declined to speak to a reporter.

Pooler Mayor Karen Williams and city manager Matthew Saxon did not immediately return email messages seeking comment Wednesday. Pooler city hall was closed and no one answered the phone.

Johnson was an Army soldier stationed in Savannah eight years ago when Matthew prompted evacuation orders in the area. Like many other residents, Johnson left town.

He didn’t buy the house on Tappan Zee Drive until two years later. Flood damage from the hurricane was still all too obvious — the previous owner had gutted the interior walls and left the remaining repairs for a buyer to finish. The seller also slashed the asking price, and Johnson couldn’t resist.

“Our Realtor didn’t want us to buy the house,” Johnson said. “I was the one that was like, `You can’t beat this deal.’”

Now he’s not sure what will happen. He doesn’t have flood insurance, saying his insurer told him the house wasn’t in a flood zone. But he also doesn’t want to sell, like many of the street’s homeowners who saw flood damage from the 2016 hurricane.

“We’ve got a bad history with it, but the fact is we put so much sweat into it,” Johnson said of his home. “Nobody else in our family owns a home. So we want to keep it.”