A class-action lawsuit may be brewing in Essex as some residents become fed up with basement flooding. Glen Mills says upwards of 150 residents are considering legal action if the issue isn't resolved. "This is out of control," he says. Mills has lived on Townsview Court in Essex for the past 15 years. He says flooding issues started surfacing in his subdivision only in the last year or so. "I've done nothing wrong and my insurance has doubled, I don't have basement coverage anymore," he says. "My wife and kids and myself, we're afraid to sleep in the rain because we don't know if we're going to wake up and my basement is going to be flooded again." There's not much left Mills can do about basement flooding. "I have two sump pumps in my house. I have two water backups in case the power goes out, I have a check valve. I have everything I could possibly do," he says. Mills says he and many neighbours will be at Tuesday's council meeting where a flooding update is expected from the town. Meanwhile the response he's gotten from town officials isn't exactly what he's looking for. "I've never seen town council drag their feet. They have no answers," he says. "My answers so far have been this: 'Oh Glen, it's a 100-year storm.' Well we've had two or three 100-year storms in the last year. I mean last time I checked that's a nonsense excuse."
Lucier Estates in McGregor, 2013. (Photo courtesy of Essex OPP)
