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Norwood Flood Clean-Up Underway

Ann Thompson
/
WVXU
Norwood School District employees are power washing chairs from the cafeteria where water was chest deep.

Heavy rains and flooding caught Norwood and St. Bernard residents off guard Sunday night, with one man telling WVXU Monday, the city must have "ticked off Mother Nature."

In just a few hours The National Weather Service says Norwood got 4.41 inches of rain. See more pictures posted by residents on this newly created Facebook page.

The Cincinnati Red Cross is counting up the number of people displaced because of the flooding. Thirty residents are out of just one apartment building. Relief organizations such as Matthew 25 Ministriesare distributing supplies in Norwood and St. Bernard.

Norwood High School was closed Monday and will also be closed Tuesday. At the height of the storm, flooding was waist-deep in the cafeteria. "We're getting everything cleaned up, all the mud, mulch, tree branches, that got in there," Norwood School Superintendent Rob Amodio said. "Once we get all the dirt out, we will disinfect."

Roger Bacon High School and the St. Bernard-Elmwood Place School District are also closed Monday because of damage. Roger Bacon will also be closed Tuesday. Covington Catholic in Park Hills closed because of a power outage.

Credit Ann Thompson / WVXU
/
WVXU
The Fun Factory was flooded, forcing this wall out.

Norwood's Fun Factory suffered storm damage. A spokesman didn't want to talk about it, but the arcade was flooded inside, forcing a wall out.

Wilburn Jones has lived on Carter Avenue for 46 years and says flooding is rare. "You could have ridden a boat down the street. I mean, that's how much water was running. Coming off the steps it was like Niagara Falls."

Herb Minnie is a maintenance worker. He was checking out reported water damage in 15 properties, the first of which was on Carter Ave.

About a block over on Franklin Ave. Devin Lauwerier was outside with a chain saw. He said, "My whole driveway flooded. It seemed like none of the drains were working at all. It was a river coming down the street. It was crazy!" Lauwerier said his seven year old son "thought the flood was going to wash us away."

If you have a sewer back-up you can contact MSD via its sewer back-up website.

Ann Thompson has decades of journalism experience in the Greater Cincinnati market and brings a wealth of knowledge and expertise to her reporting.