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Residents recover from flooding in Ottawa County

Fields and homes remain underwater after rain hammered down five to eight inches in Ottawa County Tuesday night.
(Source: WTOL)

OAK HARBOR (WTOL) - Fields and homes remain underwater after rain hammered down five to eight inches in Ottawa County Tuesday night, prompting a state of emergency to be declared in Oak Harbor, Port Clinton and Ottawa County.

Farmers outside of Oak Harbor will have to replant their crops, while some neighbors in Port Clinton have to find replacement housing because their home is unlivable from the flood waters.

Most of the residents in an apartment building in Port Clinton had to throw away several of their belongings, while crews worked to clean up the mess left behind from the flood waters.

"I was up at 11 p.m. I walked into my bathroom saw it was flooded and then called the landlord and then an hour and a half later it was completely flooded," said Doug Spiegel, who has to find a new place to stay while his apartment is cleaned.

He described the flood water as "Lake Erie in his apartment."

Just across the street, Rychard Muscaro's entire basement flooded. He discovered the mess when he was on his way to work and spend most of the day cleaning up his basement.

He said he lost several of his family's sentimental items and more.

"I got up and I took a look at the basement and it was more than halfway up the stairs. I literally just sat down and cried for a minute thinking what am I going to do?" said Muscaro, a Port Clinton resident. "I mean, everything was floating."

Ottawa County's Emergency Management Director says they are focused on damage assessment and removing debris now before they can truly begin the cleanup. So far they expect hundreds of homes to be damaged by the flood waters.

One Oak Harbor resident said he began pumping water out of his basement Tuesday night at 1 a.m. and still had water flowing off of his property at 7:30 p.m. with much more work to be done.

"This is the worst flood I've seen here in 20 years," said June Deisenroth, an Oak Harbor resident.

Deisenroth had flood water in her home, car and yard. She and her husband are hoping insurance will come through for all the damage.

"My husband has a racing team so a race car sitting in the garage, we have an engine that is sitting under water and he's got a lot of tools and stuff in there so yeah we're really hoping that the insurance will cover everything," explained Deisenroth.

Along Locust Street in Oak Harbor you could see home after home pumping water off their property and cars splashing the road water back into yards. They expect clean up to continue for the next several days.

While homeowners work to figure out their next steps, EMA leaders are asking neighbors who need help to call 2-1-1 to get the resources they need from several community partners.

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