Flooding hits Black Hills, forcing tenants to leave homes

RAPID CITY, S.D. (KOTA) – With the rainfall that the Black Hills experienced Friday, the Northern Hills were severely affected

In the aftermath of a flood that started around 4 p.m. on Friday, people residing in Brookhaven Estates apartments, Spearfish, had to leave their homes due to the extensive damage.

“My dog and I were inside, and I was just trying to collect stuff and try to save stuff because I thought it was just a minor flood, and then it started getting up to my knees, and then I just kept going, and I like at that point I had grabbed my dog. She like ran to her kennel, grabbed my dog, and then got out the back window over there,” said Brookhaven Estates tenant Miranda Cedillo.

Tenants at Brookhaven were surprised at how severe the storm was. While the upper-floor tenants experienced less damage, the basement residents faced a greater impact, leaving them with extensive flooding to the ceiling.

“We actually had some tenants that were trapped inside the building. The fire department and police department came out pretty quickly. And luckily, everybody got out safely, pets included. There were some pets that we hadn’t come back to rescue. But the fire department helped with that a lot of damage. total losses on a lot of these apartments; all the tenants here lost pretty much everything that they have,” said Brookhaven Estates property manager Patrick Williams.

Williams was surprised by all the damage caused by the flood.

“All these apartments affected will be kind of a full renovation, so we did get power and water back onto the tenants that are staying, but all of them that were flooded, last few relocated, and it’ll be a multi-month process I imagined to clean everything up,” said Williams.

Williams is helping the tenants find another place to live temporarily.

“As far as dealing with the situation, hopefully, we can get them housing elsewhere, and they can get some support,” said Williams.

If you’re interested in donating to the affected families in Spearfish, click here.

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