Flood recovery efforts move forward in Southwest Detroit: "There's a lot of progress that's been made"
It's been just over two weeks since a water main break in Southwest Detroit flooded dozens of homes, causing widespread damage in basements and the neighborhood and leaving many residents displaced.
Meanwhile, recovery efforts continue. Dozens of city crews and contractors have been working around the clock to repair damaged homes and appliances.
City officials say they're committed to getting folks in the neighborhood back in their homes.
"The good news is there's a lot of progress that's been made," said Detroit Water and Sewerage Department Director Gary Brown.
As of Thursday, the 54-inch water main break on Rowan and Beard streets is repaired.
Brown says it's undergoing standard testing for bacteria and will be in service soon. All lines pumping this Southwest Detroit neighborhood finally have water.
"There should be no homes in the neighborhood that don't have water available," Brown said.
However, Brown has concerns regarding the sewer system.
"One of my biggest concerns is the sheer amount of mud and dirt that has gone into the sewer system. As you know, spring is approaching; we'll get heavy rain. Those sewers need all the capacity that we can provide. So, GLWA (Great Lakes Water Authority) has completed yesterday (Wednesday) a cleaning of all the sewers in this neighborhood," he said.
Contractors are also working together to remove damaged appliances.
"We're very happy to help any way we can. We think it's a really unfortunate situation, but we'll stay out here as long as we need to get this fixed up and get everyone's systems back up and rolling," said SGI Heating and Cooling technician James Mcenrue.
By the end of Thursday, 40 furnaces and hot water tanks had been replaced. By next week, Brown says more than 70 homes will have brand-new furnaces and hot water tanks.
"Every known furnace and hot water tank and plumbing issue will be taken care of by early next week," said Brown.
The city's goal is to get those displaced back into their homes. Brown says more than 180 residents are still in hotels. One resident, who did not want to be identified, returned home this week. He tells CBS News Detroit his basement was under five feet of water, the destruction was devastating, but the recovery process with the city has been smooth.
"I have nothing but positive things to say as far as the workers who came in, the contractors who took care of their job, the water department of just following up and just being sincere. Even though I lost everything, someone got it worse than me so I can't complain. I'm just grateful nobody lost their life," the resident said.
The city plans to expedite claims involving damaged vehicles. We're also told inspections are still taking place.
"There were 188 homes that simply needed to remove debris and to be sanitized, and now we have building safety inspectors along with some inspectors that we've hired that are going back through those homes to make sure that all the safety issues were taken care of," said Brown.
As far as repairs, crews plan to get even more done this weekend.
