A northeast San Antonio family says a lack of street drainage is making every rainstorm feel like a flood. The city is taking a fresh look after they called KENS.
SAN ANTONIO — Aaron Wing said his family has to worry about their porch and yard flooding every single time they get a strong rain. He said the city resurfaced their street around five years ago but didn’t upgrade their sidewalks.
“They redid the street and almost buried the sidewalk with the asphalt,” Wing said.
When KENS 5 came out to the street, we found the sidewalk was still there but there was almost no curb for a large part of that block. In fact, there were some places where the street was higher than the sidewalk.
Unfortunately, Wenzel Road also happens to be on a hill. That means the water flows right down the street, into the yards, and directly to the front porches and garages of local homes.
“When it rains over here, all of our driveways flood. One of my neighbors needs sandbags to prevent the water from getting into his house,” Aaron Wing said. “We had to put boards up to prevent it from flowing to our front door.”
Both Wing and his father told KENS 5 they had contacted the City of San Antonio about the issue for several years. He said they also sent in pictures and videos multiple times. Wing said a city representative did come out and look at the issue last year.
“They would come take a look and say ‘that’s pretty messed up’ and then they don’t come back.” Wing said.
The family also forwarded emails to KENS 5 which showed San Antonio Public works had worked on a solution at some point, but that solution was never funded.
Finally, in May, the family called KENS 5 for help.
“I think my dad saw the Call KENS commercials,” Wing said.
KENS 5 reviewed the emails and flooding videos the family provided and took a look at the street. We then put together a new video and sent it to San Antonio Public Works along with a description of the issue.
The City of San Antonio had just recently appointed a new Public Works Director, Art Reinhardt, in January of this year. It turns out, Reinhardt was already setting up a meeting with the family. He also reviewed the video.
Reinhardt then met with several families on Wenzel Road, including the Wing family, the very next week.
“It was good to have the public works director come out here and have a conversation,” Wing said. “He came up with a few ideas…He wanted to get a survey done of the land first.”
San Antonio Public Works also sent KENS 5 a statement about their plan moving forward that said in part:
“In the next two weeks, the City will conduct a topographic survey of the roadway. This information will help determine which interventions are appropriate.
Potential treatments include installing a curb, modifying the existing drainage infrastructure and driveways on the street, or altering the grading of the roadway. Once the topographic survey is complete, it will take a couple of weeks to review these potential treatments, determine next steps, and then follow up with the residents.”
Wing said the family is still a little skeptical after waiting so long for a solution, but the meeting with the public works director make them more hopeful that a solution was on the way.
“I feel better, sure, that he has an idea and he has a plan and he seems like he wants to help us,” Wing said.
KENS 5 will be following back up to find out what solutions are on the table.
If you have a problem like this, we want to help you fix it! In our series, Call KENS, we do our best to solve problems for our viewers. The number to call is 210-470-KENS, or fill out the form on this page.