LORAIN, Ohio — It's been almost four weeks since severe storms flooded homes in a number of Northeast Ohio communities, including Lorain. Since then, we've been back every week, following through on every chapter of the story to see how the cleanup is coming along. Every week we found people still asking for help; namely, they wanted the trash they had dragged from their homes hauled away from the curb.
We went back and found the progress being made.
We don’t just report the initial story—we follow through to its conclusion. Read and watch our previous reporting on this story below and see more stories that we've followed through on here.
Residents in Lorain take pride in their homes. For many, it was upsetting when August storms flooded their basements, and damaged items like carpets and couches weren't collected for over three weeks.
"Enough is enough," said Bill German. "Every time the creek goes up, people have row boats going down the street."
German said he still deals with $13-15,000 of basement damages, including some irreplaceable family valuables.
"A lot of memories there, it's sickening," said German.
Since the August storms, News 5 has returned to Lorain every week, following every chapter of the cleanup process, asking questions and holding city officials accountable. More than three weeks later, the trash that once lined Lorain's streets was finally cleaned up on Monday.
In a statement, Republic trash collection told News 5 it's back on schedule in Lorain. On a usual day, Republic Services collects around three loads, but during this time, it says it was collecting 30 plus loads, adding 200 tons of material each day, just in the city of Lorain.
Resident Kurt Simmons said he believes our coverage finally pushed Republic trash collection to come to his neighborhood.
"Channel 5, thank you all because it wasn't just about two hours later two teams of men and two trucks came through, and the entire area has been cleaned up," said Simmons.
Simmons wishes the city would better communicate next time a backup like this happens again.
"Communicate, tell people, 'Hey, we know this is different from the norm and what we normally do, but we are working on it,' and 'here's how we are addressing it,'" said Simmons. "Maybe they bring that right through Channel 5 News, and it happens."
Simmons is happy all that's left over from the storm's damages now are some patches of dead grass, not piles of month-old trash.
"It's important the efforts didn't go down; they went up," said Simmons. "TV 5 and your new reporting efforts have certainly helped bolster that. I'm glad you came back."
The City of Lorain said despite the trash collection backup this month, the city will continue to use Republic trash collection services. The city adds that to avoid a situation like this from happening again, it is going to improve community outreach to make sure residents are aware of trash collection guidelines for storm debris.
