DRAIN, Ore. — Almost a week after the rainstorm that brought mass flooding to Douglas County, areas still have to do some major cleanup. The community of Drain had multiple streets completely submerged in water, along with seeing landslides cutting power to businesses.

Mercedes Long and her neighbors living in apartments on Date Street said the area went from a few puddles to completely flooded in a only a matter minutes on March 16. Long said the storm drain eventually bubbled up before the water started to rush in.

“The storm drain in our parking lot started flooding and overflowing. I moved my car, and we came back about an hour later, and the parking lot had water up to the sidewalk,” Long said. “I’ve never seen it like it was.”

With water that high in such a short amount of time, the apartments on the first floor were the first to suffer major flood damage. Making matters worse, the smell that the water left behind. Long said the water was mixed with sewage.

“It smells like sewer. It’s disgusting. You can’t be in here for more than a couple hours before you get a headache,” Long said.

In the days since the flooding, Mercedes and neighbors had the difficult task of going through their apartments and getting rid of all their furniture and items that were not worth salvaging. Long said although they are upset about this, their biggest frustration came when they tried to get their insurance claims.

“What’s the point of renters insurance if it doesn’t help when its needed. I’ve lost my fridge, and I lost all of my food,” Long said. “I’ve lost furniture, beds. I call DHS and I got $23 credited back to my food stamps.”

During this time of cleanup, she said that the services they are told to call are not responding or unable to immediately help.

Long now has to live with friends after her landlord said that she will likely have to remain away from her apartment for several months with no certain date as to when the cleanup and repairs will be made.

“What’s frustrating is there are no resources for us. We get told to call the Red Cross. I’ve got on a call and was told we’re on a 3-week waiting list. Everywhere we go for help, we get turned somewhere else,” Long said. “In the event of this disaster — that its being called — there’s no help for us. It’s a big fat ‘sorry oops’. What do we do now?”

Noah Chavez joined the KEZI 9 News team in January 2023 as a news reporter. If you have any story ideas for Noah, you can email him at noahchavez@kezi.com.