Grosse Pointe Farms Blames DTE for Heavily Flooded Basements

For at least the second time in a matter of months, residents in the heart of are dealing with flooded basements. The flooding began late Friday and cotinued into early Saturday, keeping many people up overnight. 

Professional water removal trucks lined the streets and driveways on McMillan, Moran, McKinley, Kerby and many other streets early Saturday. 

This afternoon a letter hand delivered to residents states the pumping station was "knocked offline for several minutes Friday" due to "several DTE power bumps." The letter also says the lack of power to the pumping station contributed to much of the flooding in basements. 

The when severe flooding was reported in May following what city officials described as a 100-year storm. At that time, residents were because power outages are rare at the pumping station, which has three sources of power that act as backups when one or even two go out unexpectedly. 

According to chatter on Facebook and Twitter and among neighbors in the affected areas, the flooding is far worse this time as compared to May. Many homes that avoided it in May are dealing with clean up today.

The city has scheduled an informational hearing for Thursday Sept. 15 at the where the city engineer will present details about the situation and residents may ask questions.

The circumstances of the pump station going offline are being investigated by the city and more information will be available by the time of the meeting, according to the letter. 

Residents were also given tips about how to clean areas affected by the flooding, noting that the area is served by a combined storm and sewage sanitary system. 

According to the letter, the area most affected is from Mack Avenue to Ridge Road and Moross to the city line. 

Many residents that are still waiting to hear about their claim. It's likely another round of claims will be filed.