The Green Fire Department pumped two flooded basements in the Solar Estates area of Green and fielded a total of five rain-related calls early last Friday as torrential downpours pushed into the area.
Strong thunderstorms were observed along the Interstate 77 corridor between Akron and Canton dropping almost 2 inches of rain between 2 a.m. and 8 a.m., according to the National Weather Service.
''That's quite a bit of rain over a short period of time,'' said Martin Thompson, of the National Weather Service in Cleveland. The area had accumulated about 26 inches of rain so far in the year.
The fire department pumped two flooded basements for about an hour each between 5:30 and 10 a.m. on Neptune Drive, said Captain Greg Morgan of the Green Fire Department. The department had units in three other flood-related calls, but took no action because they were cases of nonthreatening still water.
''We normally don't get involved unless there is a threat to utilities,'' Morgan said.
About 4 inches of water flooded the entrance of Green Acres apartments on Massillon Road, and flooded the garages of three two-story townhouses.
''It's depressing. I heard the storm last night, but I didn't expect to wake up to this,'' said Tabitha Berdis, who lives in one of the three affected townhouses and who was going to sell some belongings she, her ex-husband, and a friend had in her garage.
''We were going to have a garage sale here, but I guess we're going to have to take the loss,'' said Berdis, who had moved into the townhouse just two weeks earlier. ''I'm not working, so what we were going to make was going to pay our bills.''
Water crept into the garages of the three townhouses, but not inside the living areas. The building the three houses share is near a creek. It was surrounded by about 4 inches of water on the east and south sides of the building Friday afternoon.
Distributed by the Associated Press
