Queens homeowners once again brace for flooding from heavy rain, storms

Some people living in Queens have faced flooding several times this summer.

As heavy rain and storms moved through the area Thursday, homeowners braced for impact once again.

Hours before it started to rain, MaryAnn Maragioglio was boarding up her front entrance.

"Every time it rains, I pick up what little bit I got left, and I'm scared," she said.

Her Woodside home has flooded at least three times this summer. She says on Aug. 20, she had over 5 feet of water in her basement, and on Aug. 23, she faced the same problem.

"I'm disgusted. We just cleaned up, and then a week and a half later, almost to the day, we got flooded again," she said.

Maragioglio says she's lived in the house for 60 years, but it's only started to flood within the past five years.

She's nowhere near a river, but the sewage system can't keep up with fast-moving downpours, so it backs up and overflows onto the street like a geyser.

The topography of the local streets has an impact. 

"Sixty-Nine goes up, Laurel Hill comes down, so everything pools here," she said.

A previous storm took out her garage wall.

"I thought, it's over. I thought we were gone," Maragioglio said.

Now, she's waiting to see what Thursday's storm will bring.

"The only thing that they can't replace is all my photos," she said. "Everything we had left from my parents and sister is all gone."

The worst part, she says, is that after her insurance sent her a check following the first flood this year, they refused to cover any damages from the next two.

"I already got paid for it once. They're not gonna pay me again," she said. "I've been paying how many years that I haven't used the insurance, and now that I need it, I can't get it. So that money that I've been putting in all these years, I can't claim it?"

The New York City Department of Environmental Protection says it's budgeted to spend $1 billion a year for the next decade on stormwater management projects, including sewer upgrades, which they say will help reduce inland flooding.