Leominster residents fed up after heavy rain floods homes

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LEOMINSTER, Mass. — Leominster residents are left to hope for a solution after heavy rain flooded multiple families' homes on Tuesday.

One Leominster family had a specifically stressful day, with the flooding adding on to health issues for one family member.

"We were at the hospital, he was having a procedure and we really needed to get him home because he was there nine hours with no rest," Donna Berry said. "Instead, he's up the street, sitting in a car because we couldn't get him here."

Berry and her father both live in the basement of a home on Blanchard Street, and came home to some serious damage.

"I live where it's flooded and I just lost everything," Berry said.

Berry and Leopold Brettschneider are siblings, and Brettschneider said Berry was left with nothing after the flooding.

"Everything she owns is gone," Brettschneider said. "Everything from her husband that just passed away from cancer, gone."

Several other homes in the neighborhood were also affected by the flooding, including Leominster resident Al Houde.

"We have had this issue two or three times in the last 13 years," Houde said. "This is the worst we have ever seen it."

Houde lives next to the Monoosenock Country Club, and said that water from a retention pond often rushes into his yard during heavy rain, before heading into the neighborhood.

In addition to the homes, Leominster firefighters were also forced to pump water out of a synagogue basement on Washington Street.

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"We had eight to 10 inches here," Deputy Chief Gary Ranino said. "We had 12 inches plus in the lower half. Having this much water here is abnormal."

Neighborhoods near the golf course, however, say the issue should've been stopped.

"We know it rained hard, but this should not have happened," Houde said.

Residents are now hoping the city will work with them to find a way to alleviate the flooding, so it doesn't happen every time it rains.