PHOENIX — Do you remember the "Storm of the Century?"
Nearly five years ago, it swept into the Valley overnight, flooding the Interstate 10 downtown, along with miles of surface streets.
More than 3 inches of rain fell at the airport in just seven hours and parts of the East Valley received almost double that.
The storm left one Mesa neighborhood near the U.S. 60 and Stapley Drive under several feet of water. The damage left behind prompted lawsuits from homeowners who ended up underwater.
Right now, the case is still tied up in court and homeowners are still hoping to receive money to pay for the damages caused by all the floodwaters.
”I have a T-shirt that said I survived September 8th, 2014,” said Mary Boruch, who remembers that day like it was yesterday. "I lost so much stuff.”
The city of Mesa recorded nearly 4-and-a-half inches of rain, setting a single-day record. The water filled up Emerald Park basin.
The floodwaters destroyed just about everything inside Boruch’s home.
“It’s stuff that they can never be replaced, like photos and stuff,” she said.
Boruch, along with nearly 100 others, filed a lawsuit seeking damages against the city and the Arizona Department of Transportation for the unlawful inundation of their homes and property with toxic storm water, claiming it was intentionally pumped and diverted into their area.
“When they diverted all of the water from 20 square miles into this one park, it overflowed and then went through the neighborhoods down there until it hit Stapley which acted kind of like a dam,” said Keith Hendricks, the lead attorney on the case.
“It has really devastated many of the people," he said. "Many of the people had to spend all of their life savings to restore their house, some of them didn’t have money to restore their house.”
Since that day of destruction, some homeowners have noticed foundation cracking and mold growing.
“I had to move out and get the whole thing redone,” said Boruch.
Homeowners impacted the most didn't live in a designated flood zone, so they didn't have insurance. They were forced to fork out their own money to make repairs.
“Our experts are saying that the damages are about $100,000 to $140,000 per house,” said Hendricks.
“They need to take care of that,” said Boruch. “I just don’t wish it on anybody and I never went through it before and I never want to go through it again.”
Hendricks says it could be another year or two before this case is resolved.
The city of Mesa and the Arizona Department of Transportation have not commented on the pending lawsuit.
If we hear of any new developments on the case, we’ll be sure to bring you those updates on air and online.