Glen Cove residents frustrated by chronic flooding brace for nor'easter
Stephen Melbinger, a 26-year resident of Woolsey Avenue, said his property has flooded 14 times during his time there.
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As a powerful nor'easter bears down on the region, Glen Cove residents are once again preparing for the worst, voicing deep frustration over what they call chronic flooding that plagues their neighborhood with every heavy rainfall.
Stephen Melbinger, a 26-year resident of Woolsey Avenue, said his property has flooded 14 times during his time there. He pointed to local infrastructure as a primary culprit, noting that newly installed catch basins quickly overwhelm during storms.
"They put in these catch basins on the street next to us that fill up in 10 to 15 minutes," Melbinger said. "They're completely filled. Then they can't take any more water."
Neighbors echo those concerns, describing a cascading effect where water quickly overtops sidewalks, rushes down driveways, and inundates backyards across the neighborhood. Resident Iri Greco noted that multiple properties in the area are consistently impacted when heavy bands of rain move through.
In response to the recurring issues, Glen Cove Mayor Pam Panzenbeck told News 12 that city crews have actively cleared drains and stepped up preparation ahead of the storm.
However, residents argue that maintenance alone falls short of addressing the root problem. Sonna Allen, another homeowner, said temporary fixes do little to protect their properties from water intrusion.
"We get a lot of, you know, 'it's temporary. It dissipates," Allen said. "Yeah. It's dissipating into our backyard. It's dissipating into our basement... It's not going into the storm drain system where it's supposed to. It's going into our yards and our homes."
Residents remain on edge as the storm approaches, hoping for a long-term engineering solution to keep their homes dry.
