WAUWATOSA Wis. – A Wauwatosa resident is calling for action from the city after her neighborhood was impacted by flooding again this week.
Erin Cannon has lived along the Menomonee River for 13 years. After losing important and precious items during the historic August floods, Cannon says every storm brings panic.
"Traumatizing, I guess would be the best word," Cannon said.
Watch: Wauwatosa resident calls for city action on leaf collection and flooding
As heavy rain moved in this week, Cannon's family pulled out pumps and sandbags once again. She said floodwater came close, but their home was spared this time. However, they still noticed that their leaves had not been collected.
"To see my husband out in the streets, raking and shoveling with our snow shovel leaves out of the gutters while it's lightning out makes my kids worry, makes us worry, and just puts another sense of fear into us," Cannon said.
Cannon said neighbors have been waiting all winter for leaf pickup from the Wauwatosa Department of Public Works. The city posted on Facebook that collection would start April 13, but she has not seen crews yet. She said the recent heavy rain and flooding pushed those uncollected leaves straight to the drains.
Cannon called the city but felt ignored when she asked about prioritizing leaf pickup.
"It's just mind-boggling that the city would not have thought of prioritizing those communities or those neighborhoods that were hit hard in August to pick up the leaf removal," Cannon said.
TMJ4 emailed and called the Wauwatosa Department of Public Works to see why the leaves were seemingly not picked up and to learn about their flood response. They did not answer by the time this story was published.
Cannon reached out to TMJ4 after seeing its coverage on the August floods in her neighborhood.
"Honestly, you guys were the first ones to respond last August," Cannon said. "Our neighborhood was like, reach out to TMJ4. They're the ones that came out here first and were responding.”
She hopes to see change before it is too late.
"I don't want to be here anymore if our city can't take care of the people that live here," Cannon said.
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