Gautier Lawsuit
In March of last year, 84 year old John Albano started off his day by stepping into raw sewage.
"It was flooding the bedrooms, the hall, the dining room, the living room, and the whole house was being flooded."
" I ran and I got the wetvac and tried to suck up the water as fast as I could but the water was coming in too fast, I couldn’t do anything”, said Theresa Wilsey, Albano’s’ daughter.
Albano says they wouldn’t have had these water and sewage problems had the city installed a black flow protector. Something he’s thought they had done after giving the city permission to do so.
"As a matter of fact, two weeks after our flooding here, our sewer backup, they came in and installed a backflow protector and found no evidence of one having ever been installed before so that was probably the reason for it”, said Albano.
The Albano’s say they aren’t the only ones with sewage problems.
Several of their neighbors who live along Bemis Avenue have also filed suit against the city.
The case is still tied up in the court system, but Gautier’s City Manager tells News 25 they’re working on a permanent solution that heavy rainfall brings to the area.
“We’ve been videoing the lines on Bemis. We have videoed miles of lines at this point. We have been clearing the lines and working on some significant engineering and design that is going to take hundreds of thousands of dollars to repair. We have committed that funding."
"It was flooding the bedrooms, the hall, the dining room, the living room, and the whole house was being flooded."
" I ran and I got the wetvac and tried to suck up the water as fast as I could but the water was coming in too fast, I couldn’t do anything”, said Theresa Wilsey, Albano’s’ daughter.
Albano says they wouldn’t have had these water and sewage problems had the city installed a black flow protector. Something he’s thought they had done after giving the city permission to do so.
"As a matter of fact, two weeks after our flooding here, our sewer backup, they came in and installed a backflow protector and found no evidence of one having ever been installed before so that was probably the reason for it”, said Albano.
The Albano’s say they aren’t the only ones with sewage problems.
Several of their neighbors who live along Bemis Avenue have also filed suit against the city.
The case is still tied up in the court system, but Gautier’s City Manager tells News 25 they’re working on a permanent solution that heavy rainfall brings to the area.
“We’ve been videoing the lines on Bemis. We have videoed miles of lines at this point. We have been clearing the lines and working on some significant engineering and design that is going to take hundreds of thousands of dollars to repair. We have committed that funding."
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