Bloomington after the flooding: officials discuss cleanup after the storms

Bloomington, Indiana – Massive storm and rain during the night on Friday, resulted with flooding in some parts of Bloomington that made residents to cleanup some areas of the city on Saturday.

According to city officials, there have been at least 17 water rescues. The Bloomington Fire Department announced they responded to at least 60 calls of which at least half were between 9:30 p.m. Friday and 5:30 a.m. on Saturday.

“Many of the things that we saw overnight were probably emergencies that happened very, very quickly and this morning we’re kind of cleaning things up,” Deputy Chief Jayme Washel with the Bloomington Fire Department said.

Washel added that fire headquarters were also flooded. According to him, there were around three feet of water in the basement.

“We’ve got a strong team: we got our police department, our fire department, city works, we got everybody working together and a strong community. You see a lot of people out here helping each other out and that’s kind of what Bloomington is all about,” Deputy Mayor Don Griffin said.

This kind of flooding happens once in a lifetime. Griffin says there has been one similar flood like this in Bloomington more than 10 years ago. This is simply something you don’t see often in the area.

“It’s bad but then you also have to look at the good that’s happening here. We’re going to rebuild and we’ll be better,” he said.