OPELOUSAS, LA — The sewage in one neighborhood is backing up into homes and streets. Residents of St. Landry Crossing called News 10 after spending a week unable to use their bathrooms.
“It reeks bad, exclaimed Jordan Zachary whose house flooded with filth on Christmas Eve. “You don’t even have to guess. Once it hits your nose that’s it,” he said.
While some dream of a white Christmas, the people on Piper Drive had nightmares of a dirtier one, and their houses aren’t feeling much like homes.
“We suppose to be going to spend time with family. We can’t even have family over at the house because of the situation we got over here,” explained Zachary.
Susan Savoy who called News 10 said, “We had to cancel all our Christmas plans back here.”
Maintenance for the Opelousas neighborhood said since Dec. 19, people of the neighborhood have made complaints to the City of Opelousas who they pay for sewage and their landlords who they pay for rent, but the wastewater has piled up and overflowed.
They don’t know what we lived through, through the holiday with that mess, that poopoo, peepee and whatever else,” Savoy said. “We try to use our toilet. We can’t even use the bathroom.”
The entire neighborhood runs on two pumps. One of those broke a year ago and was taken out which means extra strain on the remaining pump which broke last week.
“We just received a call from the answering service about some plumbing issues there, and so we immediately sent the maintenance staff from this location to that location, so he should be there now,” said Gwen Robinson, a property manager, we called about the issue.
Robison said St. Landry Crossing did request a city water representative on Christmas Eve who determined the drainage was a property issue.
Mayor Julius Alsandor emphasized that the city is not responsible for the community’s drainage. They provide water, but the property’s pumps are not getting water to the city of Opelousas for processing.
St. Landry Crossing said they will resolve the issue soon.
“I don’t know why it’s taken so long. I really can’t tell you that,” admitted Savoy. “I would like to know myself.”
According to Robinson, “This is the first issue that I’ve encountered with them and rest assured it will be taken care of today.”
Maintenance said the owner plans to use a temporary pump to clear the system for now. They are discussing replacing the broken pumps as soon as they can.
We reached out to the community again just before this report first aired Thursday night. They said nothing has been done, and their tubs and toilets still won’t drain.
We also reached out to St. Landry Crossing again, but we couldn’t be connected with the manager after hours.
