Boston Area News

SOUTH END (WBZ) ― Lou and Lynn Rizzo's basement condo on Claremont Park in the South End is really noisy these days.

And it has nothing to do with their three young children.

In fact, they're staying with grandparents.

Workmen with hammers, drills and shovels are tearing the place apart.

They're gutting it and carting off the soggy sheet rock.

Blame manmade floodwaters, and the Rizzo's aren't too happy about it.

"It's angering," says Lou, a promotions manager for a major record label.

"But at the same time we're trying to stay focused on what we need to do to put our lives back together."

THE FLOOD

He's talking about the water main break a block away on Columbus Avenue last Wednesday afternoon.

The pipe was dug up, the water shut off, and the intersection patched within hours. Might not have seemed like a big deal at the time. Many don't. But not far away, the nightmare was underway.

"It's a far greater disaster than a big hole in the ground," says Lou as he shakes his head.

The burst main had unleashed a tidal wave down Claremont Park, inundating cars on the street and washing out stretches of sidewalk as it funneled toward the Rizzo's.

It hit their place with such force it knocked out windows.

It impaled a wine bottle into the wall.

They had five feet of water in the condo, and virtually all the family's things were destroyed.

CLOSE CALL

Lynn Rizzo and her two-year-old daughter had just left.

"Thank God we weren't home because I don't know if we would've made it out."

But what followed, say the Rizzo's, was days of frustration.

THE AFTERMATH

They sought counsel and direction from the Boston Water and Sewer Department -- and then City Hall -- but got nowhere.

Says Lou, "City officials didn't seem to have a true grasp of what was going on. It made me feel as though we are now homeless, and we may get lost in the shuffle."

Several neighbors with waterlogged condos and cars tell a similar story.

Insurers are insisting their home owners policy doesn't cover flooding -- manmade or otherwise -- and an elusive city seems to imply that the debacle isn't its problem.

CITY 'WORKING DILIGENTLY'

Not so, says Jeanne Richardson of Boston Water & Sewer.

She insists her people are "working diligently in that neighborhood."

She says many residents on that block have been invited to file a claim with the hope of eventually getting some money for their losses.

She admits, though, that her workers don't go door-to-door after a water main gusher, even if they can see what's damaged.

The process is reactive -- not proactive.

Instead of ferreting out victims and pointing them in the right direction, the city responds only after an affected homeowner complains.

'TOO LITTLE, TOO LATE'

The Rizzos say they did that Thursday, and didn't get a return call until Sunday.

Yesterday, the city offered temporary housing, which the family has already secured.

"Their response has been slow," laments Lou. "And by this time it's too little too late."

But they have been able to count on family and friends.

"We lost everything," says Lynn.

"Thank goodness our friends came and got our clothes and washed them, so we've got something to put on our backs."

The Rizzos signed a six-month lease Tuesday on an apartment in the South End.

They've been told that gutting and redoing their condo might cost $100,000.

Who will pay for it is a big, nagging question mark.

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