White Plains and Valhalla region

Another day of rain, another series of headaches for Glenn Preiser, owner of Glenn’s Towing on Nepperhan Avenue in Elmsford. He has spent the past few days moving cars and elevating all of his toolboxes, inspection machines, welders and other equipment at least three feet off the ground.


A past heavy rain flooded his building with 18 inches of water, said Preiser, who has owned the company for 20 years. The disruptions can cost his business as much as $50,000 in preparation time and lost business. Business interruption insurance won’t cover the losses because his building is in a known flood zone and is four feet below the flood plane.

“It’s all commercial here so nobody cares,” Preiser, 39, said this afternoon, referring to town officials. “They could care less about us. We’re the forgotten land.”

Days of heavy rains turned many streets into makeshift rivers as storm drains and catch basins backed up, flooding roads and the parking lots of nearby businesses. Preiser said 20 years ago the Army Corps of Engineers studied the issue and said it would cost $20 million to dredge the river and relieve the capacity for flooding. Nothing’s been done yet, Preiser said.

Other businesses in the area are facing similar challenges, illustrated by Leon Parks who drove his pickup truck to the waterline on Hayes St. in Elmsford. There, he faced a street-devouring lagoon of water spreading throughout the commercial district. 
The Greenburgh resident sized up his truck and contemplated trying to make it through so he could drop off the old appliances in his truck bed at a nearby junkyard. The decision came quickly.

“I’m not even going to try it,” Parks said, backing his truck up. “It looks like a swimming pool.”

Read more about how the weather and flooding are affecting local homeowners and businesses in tomorrow’s The Journal News and on LoHud.com.

Photos: top right, Leon Parks of Greenburgh thinks better of trying to drive his pickup truck across a flooded Hayes St. in Elmsford Tuesday afternoon, March 30. He was attempting to drop off some old appliances at a nearby junkyard; left, water gushes into a drain at the intersection of N. Payne St. and Nepperhan Ave. in Elmsford Tuesday afternoon. The surrounding area is heavily flooded because of recent rains. (Dwight R. Worley/The Journal News)