Slippery Rock resident Dennis Snyder started to plug the drains in his basement after two substantial floods in two years lifted sewage into his home.

Yet, when Slippery Rock got roughly 4 inches of rain in a short period in July, the flooding won out, popping off his plugs and flooding his basement with rainwater and sewage for the third time in about three years.

He described the rain as “catastrophic.”

Slippery Rock Mayor Jondavid Longo declared a disaster emergency July 5 as the borough watched rain flood streets, garages and backup sewer systems.

One of the first substantial floods the borough sustained cost Snyder and his family about $10,000 in damage, most of which was covered by insurance.

He said some other things were more difficult to replace.

Snyder and his wife Debbie, whose son died a few years ago, had pictures and albums in the basement of their son that were lost during that first flood.

“(It’s) hard to replace pictures or anything of memorial value,” he said.

The flooding, though, is not a one-time deal.

Residents like Snyder have experienced three or four instances of significant flooding over the past three to four years.

We’ve had “three 100-year rains in a matter of three or four years,” Snyder said.

Jonathan Garczewski, from Gateway Engineers, said the borough has seen an increase in the amount of rainfall and at higher frequencies.

The flooding is a multifaceted issue, he said.

For low-lying areas in the borough, water barricades streets, bringing rivers 20 feet wide and 8 inches deep that flood basements and garages, according to Normal Avenue property owner Mike Smeltzer.

Smeltzer, who rents his property, said that one of the previous floods was strong enough to push a brick out of his garage wall. Yet, when he resealed his garage the next year, he found water trapped with no place to go.

“Other people had it worse,” Smeltzer said.

During times of intense rain, the floodwaters, or overland flow, is running down over roads and adjacent private properties, where it fills catch basins and clogs them with debris, Garczewski said.

On Slippery Rock University’s campus, flooding reached areas where it had never gone before, senior director of university marketing and communication Ken Bach said in an email.

The university saw impacts both externally — such as the intermittent flooding of Kiester Road — as well as internally, with flooding inside of Jack Critchfield Park’s locker room, building entrance and lobby.

“(In) several locations the borough’s stormwater mains were overwhelmed, which led to backups that affected campus drains,” Bach said. “We have documented all affected areas and are assessing repairs and improvements.”

“Priorities and investments will be guided by cost and likelihood of recurrence,” said Justin Zackal, associate director of university marketing and communication.

The university has made some improvements, such as dredging the pond between the East Lake and West Lake lots to limit flooding on Kiester Road, and other projects such as installing an underground drain at the Lifelong Learning building. It also plans to improve drainage on the north side of Old Main and retention solutions near the tennis courts.

Off campus, heavy rainfall leaks sewage into homes and offices like Snyder’s and dentist David Gordley’s because the stormwater management system is tied to the sewer system in some areas in the borough. It’s an outdated process that was built before the Clean Water Act and the creation of the Department of Environmental Protection.

Borough officials know some amount of water is getting into the sanitary system; they just do not know exactly where.

“It’s very situational,” Slippery Rock borough manager Christian Laskey said. The borough is working on an ordinance with the municipal authority to allow the two bodies to further inspect and address the issue.

The first flood in recent memory was around four years ago. In what residents assumed was a once-in-a-century event, Gordley lost all his flooring and his computers.

His whole staff, their spouses and their children showed up with heavy duty vacuums and got all the water up, “so my walls weren’t lost.”

When he had a near miss a year ago, Gordley figured out that the flooding carries debris east and blocks the catch basins in his lot. Even when he paid his landscaper to have his neighbors’ yards cleaned of debris, he still was left with significant flooding in his practice July 5.

“I’m trying everything,” Gordley said.

Laskey said debris collecting over storm basins is a problem everyone in the borough faces, as it is difficult to expect everyone to keep their yards “free of debris.”

Gateway Engineering has seen these types of flooding concerns in all the municipalities it serves, Garczewski said.

Smeltzer and Gordley said even with the threat of regular damage from floodwaters, many in the borough do not qualify for flood insurance because their property does not lay in a flood plain.

The borough council also found it difficult to get Federal Emergency Management Agency funding despite declaring a disaster emergency. The threshold for funding is at $6 million in damages. It is difficult to track the financial worth of damage, especially to private and university-owned properties.

Garczewski said that any steps taken by the borough to mitigate the floods will likely be “cost-prohibitive.”

He plans to continue to collect data on the flooding in the borough and intends to sit down and discuss it with the borough in the near future.