Heavy rain causes couple to leave home for a night

Posted at: 09/04/2012 11:26 PM | Updated at: 09/05/2012 3:41 AM
By: Lynette Adams | WHEC.com

The heavy rains have moved out of our area, but not without leaving an impact on a few people.

News10NBC heard several reports of flooded basements and streets, right around rush hour on Tuesday afternoon.

While the worst part for a few was having to drive through the rain, one couple on Buffalo Road has to stay somewhere else on Tuesday night because of what the rain did to their home.

Nancy Gleichauf and Robert Whalen Jr. say so much water leaked into their apartment, it felt like they were standing outside.

Nancy says, “It looks like I (had) been standing out here in rain… that’s the way it came in.”

Nancy Gleichauf was preparing dinner in her upstairs apartment when she and her husband noticed a leak in one corner of the ceiling. They caught it with a bucket, but then a second and third leak started and before long...

She says, “It was totally raining into the whole room like there was no roof at all there.”

The couple couldn’t believe it and called the fire department. Firefighters said the rain was gathering on the flat roof of the building and then leaking inside.

Lieutenant Henry Willard of the Rochester Fire Department says, “I sent truck five up to the roof to see if the drains were plugged or not and it was… and he reported about three and a half feet over the roof, which gave us concern the whole roof was going to give way, into the building.”

Willard says it was a busy evening for fire fighters handling incidents just like the one at this Buffalo Road apartment building… all of them rain related.

He says, “This is our fifth call just in this company alone, the whole city is running all over. I’m sure the county is too.”

The losses to this couple are great. It will mean at least one night away from home. They say some of their furniture was ruined and when they get back, they have a lot to clean up.

They tell News10NBC, “Also we just went grocery shopping so we have a refrigerator and freezer full of food… right now it’s going to get ruined.”

It turns out the drains were plugged. Firefighters were able to unclog them.

The Red Cross provided housing for the couple.

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