STOCKTON, Calif. — For several months now, Sesilie Robledo has had to stare at two unusable bedrooms severely damaged by flood waters from recent storms.
"It's very frustrating. I have a baby on the way, so there is no way for us to even have room for a baby. Right now, we're sharing with our room and my son's room that I already have," said Robledo.
Since they purchased their home this past October, they say it has flooded not once, not twice, but three times.
In fact, they say the home first flooded just over a week after they moved in. Their garage has been flooded as well.
"When it's working, the drains and stuff, we don't get flooded, so anytime we get flooded, it's not our fault. We haven't even repaired it because we know there is going to be flooding more," said Robledo.
"You can see in the street right here there are some obvious seams in the asphalt," said Elizabeth Zedradzinski, pointing to the street in the rain.
She also has a home on the West Rose Street cul-de-sac near Victory Park. She says close to two years ago, the city made extensive repairs in the middle of the street to an underground drainage system to alleviate flooding. But she says as recently as last Saturday, the flooding returned.
"The cul-de-sac backed up. There was three to five feet of water. Well, I would say three to four feet in certain parts of the cul-de-sac," said Zedradzinski.
Another neighbor ABC10 spoke to says the drainage problem has caused tens of thousands of dollars in damage to his foundation and garage.
He took video of the drain at the end of the cul-de-sac that shows water gushing back out onto the street. He says this is the real problem, but doesn't know why it's happening.
Both he and the Robledo family have submitted claims for damages to the city, but say they were both rejected.
"They said it was working on their end. They said it was working on their computers. If it was working, it would be draining and not backing up," said Robledo.
When we reached out to the city, a city spokesperson told ABC10 in a statement:
"Where flooding has entered a home, the first step is for the homeowner to file a claim with their homeowner's insurance. Claims submitted to the City are evaluated by our third-party administrator and a determination will be made based on the situation."
The city also added that people should call 209-837-8341 if a street is flooded.
"I'm not sure why these problems are coming up. It's like, you would know that proper drainage in this community is needed," said Zedradzinski.
A city crew did come out and pump the water from the street when it flooded last Saturday. The city spokesperson added the series of storms has been overwhelming.
ABC10 will continue to follow this story.
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