Residents Around Grand Lake Still Unable To Get Home

People living near Grand Lake in Delaware County have been dealing with flooding issues of their own.

Many haven’t been able to get to their homes for weeks now and are worried about what will be left when they can go back.

"We saw it coming up, so we decided on the 21st or something to get out,” said resident Richard Coffey. “We got as much stuff for 2-3-4 days.”

That's what many of Richard Coffey's neighbors thought when they left their Hickory Meadows neighborhood last month. They've dealt with flooding before.

"Since 2015, it's flooded on the same date every 2 years,” said resent Sheila Wintrode. “It always came up, and after three days we could be back in our homes and we could clean up our mess."

But Grand Lake kept rising and the Army Corps of Engineers wasn’t letting the water out the prevent flooding downstream. It's now been 21 days and many people living near the lake can’t access their homes.

"I don't know what we're gonna do about cleaning up. My husband tries but he's 82,” said Peggy Kalsbeek.

Peggy Kalsbeek says she and her husband stayed in a motel for a week but it was too much to afford on fixed income, so she's staying with friends until the waters recede. She says she is running out of medication and just wants to be home.

"We tried to get in one day. [My husband] waded in and he got me pills, but who thought I'd be out of the house for 21 days,” Kalsbeek said.

Neighbors say in the past 2 days, the water has began to recede, and the Army Corps was releasing roughly 15,000 cubic feet per second of water as of Tuesday morning.

"It's been tough but it'll get better,” Coffey said.

The neighbors tell me FEMA was out h Monday surveying the damage, and today Governor Stitt announced 7 more counties including Delaware were approved for federal help.