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LEXINGTON, Kentucky (WLEX) — Linda Kelley hasn’t slept through a thunderstorm in years.
“Anytime we hear that a storm is coming through, there’s no sleep at night,” said Kelley, who lives behind the Euclid Avenue Kroger in downtown Lexington. “We have to sit up all night and wait.”
Kelley says her Marquis Avenue home floods regularly during heavy downpours — a problem that began about 12 years ago when Kroger expanded its store. She claims the city replaced a larger storm drain with a much smaller one during construction, creating a bottleneck that can’t handle runoff from the surrounding area.
“It’s gotten up completely under my house,” Kelley said of the flooding. “The last big rain that we had when all of Lexington was flooded, it looked like we sat in the middle of a pond.”
The 70-year resident says her home never flooded before the Kroger expansion. She believes the current drain is too small to carry water from uphill areas and the store’s parking lot.
“That’s why we keep a shovel on the front porch to have to clear out this drain,” Kelley said, pointing to debris-covered grating.
Kelley also complained about a Kroger-owned fence that fell two years ago and overgrown grass on company property, saying she repeatedly contacted the store without response.
Within 24 hours of LEX 18 News inquiring about the situation, city workers arrived to inspect the drains and Kroger removed the fallen fence.
“I was shocked,” Kelley said. “I knew that they’d probably come through fairly quick, but I had no clue that they’d be, you know, that fast.”
Workers with the city’s Division of Water Quality removed grating to inspect one drain and cleared construction debris from another drain on Kroger property.
LEX NEWS contacted a city representative to ask if changes would be made. Susan Straub said she is waiting on more information from the Division of Water Quality.
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Kelley hopes a larger drain will be installed to solve the chronic flooding.
“As long as the smaller drain stays there, we’re just going to continue having this problem,” she said. “It’s just a shame that people get to sleep through thunderstorms, but in our case, we have to stand at the front door wondering and waiting to see if they’ll be flooded again.”
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