PARMA, Ohio — Streets looked more like rivers earlier this month in Parma.
Roads were underwater, basements flooded and high water in parking lots trapped cars.
"Just trying to get things back to normal," said Steve Dimotsis, whose basement was underwater following the flood.
Dimotsis finally got new carpet in his basement Wednesday, weeks after the initial flooding.
"Kind of disheartening that you had to throw a lot of stuff away that you had for a lot of years, and that was the hard part, trying to save as much as we could," he said.
More than 100 people just like Dimotsis crammed into Parma city hall Wednesday to join the mayor and other city officials to not only talk about this major flooding event, but also how to keep this from happening again.
During the meeting, Parma Mayor Tim Degeeter encouraged residents to fill out a survey about the flooding.
"We are trying to capture all this data and go up there and say we need assistance from the Army Corps to move forward faster on some of these projects," said Degeeter.
While residents were receptive to future projects like replacing sewer lines, building new basins and dumping old ones and other septic projects, many of them were curious what the city could do now to help. Several folks started to yell out their concerns, and the question and answer part of the meeting lasted several hours.
"We lost everything. Washer, dryer, two bedroom sets," said Parma resident Tomas Savona.
Savona’s basement got 19 inches of water, he says his insurance didn’t give him nearly enough to replace everything and he was left he’s says he was even more frustrated after the meeting.
"They’re talking about the future, you know in 2020 or 2022," said Savona. "Like the other gentleman said, don’t talk to me about the future, talk to me about now, like what can we do now?"
Many residents say they didn’t think the meeting solved much.
The mayor, however is more hopeful. He says he wants residents to fill out the questionnaire and he’s going to continue to push for outside funding and making improvements.
RELATED: Parma residents frustrated by flooding to meet with city leaders
