Homeowners Receive No Help, So Far, After Power Failure Causes Ruined Basements

Don Algren's basement is ruined and he wants somebody to pay for it.

More specifically, Algren wants the Northest Public Sewer District to pay for it.

Last Saturday during a power outage, sewage crept into his and five other Fenton homes in the Winter Park subdivision. It caused $20,000 worth of damage to his property. His insurance will only cover about half of that.

Algren and other homeowners had pointed questions during a Thursday night meeting for Jeffrey Doss, the  Northeast Public Sewer District's executive director. A pump station the district owns failed and that led to the basement overflows.

The problem began early last Saturday when the nearby pump station lost power. As planned, the backup generator took over, but a little more than an hour later lightning struck, Doss said.

The generator's diesel engine continued to run, but with destroyed circuitry, it couldn't create any electricity, Doss said. That meant the pumps stopped and waste soon found its way into the homes.

"Someone needs to repay that to me, and to make my house whole again," Algren said with a voice full of frustration. "I live right across the street from that pump station and its been a headache for years, for years."

Another affected couple were new homeowners who had never heard of basement sewer overflows before. Many insurance policies only have coverage for overflows as part of a separate option, so the two had no insurance to pay for the damage.

The homeowners want some compensation from the sewer district, who they see as liable. But several homeowners with insurance called the district's broker who said the situation was an "act of God" and they were denying all claims.  

Jana Gottlieb, who lives along Winter Park Drive with the other homeowners, said she wasn't going to accept that answer.

"We as your customers have to have a feeling that we can trust you and that you're willing to stand up and fix the problems that we have," she said to Doss.

He couldn't speak for the insurance broker, he said, but encouraged people to attend the district's next board meeting on at 6:30 p.m. July 20.

The board would probably be sympathetic to the homeowner's situation and might be willing to pay for some of the damage, Doss said.

One person asked Doss if this would happen again.

"Anything that's mechanical is going to break," he replied. "Unfortunately, its going to break at the worst time."