Rainstorms Cause Flooding and Sewer Backups All Over Western New York

Severe thunderstorms have rolled into Western New York, and that has brought with it a ton of wild weather for the Buffalo region. From Lake Erie to the Finger Lakes, a lot of precipitation has fallen from the sky, and it's not all rain.

Even though the calendar says winter is over, Western and Central New York are still getting hit with some wild weather, especially thunder-hail and lots of lightning.

KEEP READING: Massive Hail Storm Caught On Camera In Western New York

According to multiple alerts issued by the National Weather Service, the people of Western New York should expect even more wild weather with heavy rain, hail, strong winds, and even a tornado warning for parts of the region.

With all of that extra precipitation hitting the ground, that usually also means that Buffalo and Western New York have to deal with a fair amount of flooding. Roads from the city of Buffalo to the surrounding suburbs are all impacted by clogged storm sewers.

While that is a major inconvenience for people trying to travel around town, it creates another issue that the people of Western New York have to deal with: flooded basements and sewage backups.

KEEP READING: New York Sues Its Second-Largest City Over Sewage Spills

Because most of Western New York uses what's called combined sewer systems, where rainwater runoff, domestic sewage, and industrial wastewater all flow into the same pipe within a region, when a lot of rain falls, as we've seen recently, these sewer systems back up and overflow. Sometimes they overflow back into people's basements, and other times they overflow into our lakes, rivers, streams, and creeks.

According to data from Buffalo Niagara Waterkeeper, there are dozens of CSO points in Erie and Niagara County.

Under New York State's Sewage Pollution Right to Know Rules, reports show that hundreds of thousands of gallons of untreated sewage have been dumped into our regional waterways since this storm started. These discharges are impacting the Buffalo River, Tonawanda Creek, Donner Creek, Smoke Creek, and several more.

As more rain is set to fall over the next few days, these backups are expected to continue.