Belleville home is ‘not livable’ after flood. Family and friends help its owners recover

Brice and Kathryn Bujnak entered their new larger home, cozied away in a scenic Belleville neighborhood, only a year ago. Richland Creek flows past the home on Forest Gate Drive in the south end of the city, and trees provided a natural fence for their two-acre property.

Though they lived in Belleville previously, Kathy Bujnak, Brice’s mother, said this was their “first big home.”

Kathryn said it’s difficult to get flood insurance in Belleville since most of it isn’t considered a floodplain. In fact, they were told they didn’t even need it, Kathy said.

But when it stormed on Tuesday, dumping up to 8 inches of rain across the region , the Bujnak’s basement filled with 9 feet of water that had spilled over Richland Creek’s banks. It destroyed everything in the basement, and nearly overflowed into the rest of their house.

“If it had rained hard for another 10 minutes, my whole first floor would have been covered in water,” Kathryn said. “We were lucky it stopped where it did and just got to our basement — but our basement has all the big things that make the house run.”

Some of the destruction included a bathroom, a refrigerator, at least a dozen pieces of furniture, Christmas decorations, the basement steps and doors, ceiling lights and the home’s HVAC system.

The water had also disconnected duct work inside a crawl space, inside which the sound of running water could be heard. Shattered glass, ceiling panels and a small layer of sitting water were left behind on the basement’s floor.

At its peak, the water was about waist high in the front yard. The creek’s bank had been quickly eroded away from rushing water and fallen trees, Kathy said.

Kathryn said this is not the first time the couple have experienced this type of flooding, referring to the flood that occurred two years ago. She hopes Belleville will assess and fix the issue.

“Every time there’s heavy rain — on our street and multiple others in Belleville — it just gets so much water,” Kathryn said. “When this keeps happening, it makes you not want to live here.”

Kathryn said she knew multiple people who also had flood damage , but has yet to see damage as drastic as theirs. She doesn’t know what they should do.

“Our house is not livable,” Kathryn said. “We just have to come up with stuff to get it back up and running … It’s just terrible.”

Kathryn is unsure just how much it will cost to repair this damage since they weren’t covered by flood insurance.

This is what she does know for sure: “We’re not going to have a fully finished basement anymore. We can only fix the necessities and move on,” she said.

While Kathryn was pressure washing the home’s backyard patio, her husband Brice and other members of her extended family were clearing out the basement. Everybody in the house was working on fixing something.

“It’s just really close family and friends that are helping us right now,” Kathryn said. “Yesterday, a big group of us pumped the water out.”

The Bujnak’s neighbor, Sue Hickey, came by to deliver banana oat bran muffins she had made some days prior.

Kathy spoke to Hickey before taking the food inside. The neighbor expressed her sympathies.

“This is a hot mess,” Kathy said.

Flood water filled up all along Forest Gate Drive. According to Hickey, a tree came down during the storm and knocked out power for everyone, but was restored that night. But then another tree fell down at around 6:30 a.m. and took out a power line.

A fallen tree also blocked Forest Gate Drive from State Street Road, and so in the meantime, people had to take a detour.

Sign Up for Local Breaking News