ALLEN PARK, Mich. – The floodwaters have subsided in Allen Park, but the cleanup efforts have hit some snags.
Residents are still trying to move past the terrible flooding that did so much damage two weeks ago. Trash keeps piling up in one spot, and people are looking for help.
Several homes on Warwick Street have piles of smelly, waterlogged trash stacked up out front.
Homeowner Lillian Martin is angry about the situation. Her basement is under reconstruction and her son is looking to install newly stained boards this weekend.
"He had to replace all of this," Martin said. "This was my grandson's bed, his nightstand, the slats."
Now they're a pile on the front lawn.
"This is all drywall, paneling that's mildewed," Martin said. "It's very upsetting. It's killing the grass, and then you have to worry about rats coming in there."
She said city officials picked up a larger rubble pile two weeks ago.
"We all asked him or else we wouldn't have put it out there," Martin said. "We put it as neat -- he said, 'As long as it's neatly, we'll pick it up.'"
Martin and her neighbors did their best to create neat piles while trying to put their lives back together.
"Both my grandsons sleep in the basement," Martin said. "They lost everything."
But the next truck never came to pick up more trash. Allen Park officials are providing extra trash pickup for flood damage and even extended the deadline for completing those pickups, but Warwick Street fell through the cracks.
"This is the last of it," Martin said. "We hope that we don't have to go through this again. I mean, what do they expect people to do?"
Allen Park has a special phone number for residents to call if they need flooding trash picked up. Martin said she's called it and requested a pickup on the line, but there still hasn't been an answer.
She called the number again Thursday and is waiting to hear whether her basement remains will be picked up anytime soon.
Residents who forgot to put out items or have more that need to be picked up, contact Advanced Disposal at 313-928-1404.