Crews drain water for hours from Glendale neighborhood following monsoon

GLENDALE, Ariz. (KSAZ) - "We're a little upset that this is happening again," Alice Mollon said.

Two retention basins, like this one, are in this neighborhood off of 83rd Avenue and Georgia, but they aren't proving to be enough when a big storm hits.

"They brought us sandbags because we were not prepared, we didn't think the rain was going to come as fast as it came," Mollon said.

Once the first basin filled up, the water made its way down this street and eventually into this basin, which also filled up and then the water started to push back on this street and with nowhere else to go, it started creeping up on some driveways.

"It got in as far in as my garage up to the little step, and I though, 'Oh boy, we're almost there,' but then they got started, the pumps, and started to come down the water," Mollon said.

Jack Friedline, the public works director for the City of Glendale, says they keep their eye on this area because of the flooding that happened here two years ago.

"It was a great concern for us," he said. "We had our city crews here pumping out the water from this retention basin. We had good luck that the storm settled down and stopped and we were able to catch up with it before there was any in-house damage from the storm water."

But neighbors are asking for more. They want a new drainage system to avoid this type of problem.

"They've been saying they've been working on it for the last two years and when you call them up and ask them what's going on; they're still working on the plans," Ed Pittington said.

Jack Friedline couldn't agree more.

"We need to get the water from this retention basin somewhere else because only when we have these downpours it fills up and backs up, so one way, shape or form we have to figure out how to take water from here and get it somewhere else out of here," he said.