NORTH CANTON, Ohio — Flash flooding destroyed a section of a North Canton family’s driveway Sunday, creating an unexpected moat and effectively trapping the family, or at least their vehicles, in their new home.
The family had just moved into the home on Nimisilia Road a few weeks ago, which featured driveway with a land bridge over a small creek. Heavy rains turned that small creek into raging river, washing away the bridge and cutting their driveway off from the road.
“From the front porch, I noticed a big section of our driveway was gone,” said homeowner Cory Dowey. “When I first came out, I could still walk across to the other side and it was almost wide enough to drive a car around, but it just kept falling in and kept collapsing in.”
It wasn’t long before the heavy rain and rising floodwaters completely washed away a huge section of the property’s driveway.
“Then all the sudden, it just went all at once it was like a raging river through here,” Dowey said. “It washed away all of our driveway - all the fill dirt.”
Dowey told the Canton Repository that there is now a stretch of water about 20 to 25 feet wide and 4 to 6 feet deep between his house and the road.
Dowey also said it doesn’t look like homeowner’s insurance will cover the cost of repairs, which was quoted at up to $20,000.
The city is dispatching a storm water inspector to determine if the the city can address the issue, Dowey told CantonRep.com.
“I could never imagine anything like this happening — I was in disbelief this morning,” Dowey said.
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