Local News - A week later, Mullica home remains surrounded by water
By LEE PROCIDA, Staff Writer | Posted: Tuesday, April 6, 2010 | 1 comment
MULLICA TOWNSHIP - The longest stretch of dry weather so far this year has done little to evaporate the moat surrounding the Cantrell family's house on Reading Avenue.
"I usually drive up to the edge of the back driveway because it's not as deep back there," said Dawn Cantrell, 56, describing her new routine for coming home. "Then I get out, put my boots on and come across the lawn."
A week after a series of rainstorms, water ranging from.....Continue Reading with more photos
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from a few inches in some spots to a few feet in others continues to make the home like an island, the result of a sloped yard and oversaturated soil.
The persistent flooding led the Red Cross to put Dawn, her husband Greg, 54, their daughter and their three grandchildren in a hotel for five days last week.
After the organization could not pay for their stay anymore, a concerned neighbor donated a trailer for them to live in until the water subsides. On Saturday, they moved into the trailer adjacent to the property where they have lived for more than a decade.
Greg Cantrell still spends a lot of time at the home, however, feeding his four dogs and sometimes carrying them through the water to go outside.
"I can't have my family come back across this water," he said, concerned about any contaminants that either ran off the surface or leached from his damaged septic tank.
On Monday, Cantrell made calls to the Federal Emergency Management Agency to see if it could help financially with the water damage and broken plumbing system, but all he wants right now is to get rid of the water.
"There's nothing else I can possibly do," he said, having already spent hundreds of dollars on pumps.
The only option the Cantrells have is to wait. They said local officials told them township crews could not pump out their yard because the municipality cannot afford the cost. Township emergency management officials did not immediately return calls for comment on whether they are continuing to help homeowners still inundated with rainwater.
The Cantrells' neighbors still have standing water in their yards as well, but not as much.
"It's the worst one out there. Let me put it that way," said Sharon Chiorazzo, a family friend from Galloway Township.
Greg Cantrell, a plumber, has tried to clear as much liquid out of the home's crawlspace as possible, with sump pumps running nonstop. He placed sandbags around its openings to keep more water out.
Now, they are just hoping the increasing temperatures and budding plants soak up the water before it rains again, possibly at the end of the week.
Cantrell said it could take weeks for the water to recede, judging from the inch or two it has gone down after nearly a week of sunny, warm weather.
"We're going to have to have some major, major nice weather for this water to go anywhere," he said.
Contact Lee Procida: 609-457-8707 LProcida@pressofac.com
Greg Cantrell falls as he wades through the lake that was once his manicured front yard on Reading Avenue in Mullica, Monday April 5 2010. "I't hard getting around in the yard 'cause you can't see where you're stepping." The family has lived in a trailer a neighbor donated to them since they have to trudge back and forth in boots to get inside. They said they spent all their money on pumps and the town won't pump them out, so they're just waiting for all the water to recede now. Greg Cantrell and his wife, Dawn and his children have lived here for 11 years, and he says this is the first time anything like this has ever happened. (The Press of Atlantic City / Ben Fogletto)
