MILWAUKEE — Milwaukee city leaders are encouraging residents to clear storm drains of leaves and trash ahead of Friday night's storm.
Parts of Milwaukee, including Capitol Drive, 15th and Kilbourn and Brady Street, flooded Wednesday night.
Mayor Cavalier Johnson and the Department of Public Works are asking neighbors to keep an eye on the storm drains.
"Help us, help yourselves out, help your neighborhoods out," Johnson said.
Jerrel Kruschke, Commissioner of Public Works for the City of Milwaukee, noted the issues causing the backups.
"What we’re seeing right now is a lot of debris and garbage. It’s a lot of garbage that ends up in the gutter pan, it gets pushed into the catch basin and blocks it," Kruschke said.
Erin Povak works with Sweet Water, an organization that aims to protect water and encourages residents to adopt storm drains. TMJ4 spoke with her just as she was heading out the door to clean her adopted drains in Shorewood.
"We’ve got a storm drain right here that I just cleared out because I know we’re getting some more rain today and this morning I noticed they’re totally blocked," Povak said.
Povak pointed out that the drain across the street was already cleared by the time she got outside.
"That says that the whole neighborhood is paying attention," Povak said.
When asked if her neighborhood experienced any flooding, she credited their clear drains.
"No, I mean we had water running down the street. It kept moving and our houses were fine," Povak said.
If you plan to lend a helping hand, be sure to take the trash and debris with you.
"That water can be powerful, and if you leave a pile next to the drain, it’s just going to wash back and either go on your drain or your neighbors drain down the street," Povak said.
Povak said Sweet Water has had a record number of people adopt drains this week following the storms.
If you want to learn more or adopt a drain, click here.
This story was reported on-air by a journalist and has been converted to this platform with the assistance of AI. Our editorial team verifies all reporting on all platforms for fairness and accuracy.
It’s about time to watch on your time. Stream local news and weather 24/7 by searching for “TMJ4” on your device.
Available for download on Roku, Apple TV, Amazon Fire TV, and more.
