CLEVELAND, N.Y. (WSYR-TV) — A culvert on Bridge Street in the Village of Cleveland, N.Y. was washed out due to a beaver dam that gave way upstream on Sunday, April 23.
The street, which is just a short road above Route 49, was closed at 10:00 a.m. on Sunday after the Oswego County Emergency Management Office announced there were flooding issues surrounding the culvert.
According to Terry Bennett, Emergency Services Program Coordinator of the Oswego County Emergency Management Office, the volume of water coming down caused the collapse of the Bridge Street culvert.
“The wall of water came down through the village here and tore down our road and broke one of our sewer mains and now we’ve got a mess to clean up,” said the Mayor of the Village of Cleveland, Laureen Tackman.
The flooding caused a large backup of water behind the culvert so crews had to work to open it up and get the water flowing and repair the sewer main so neighbors could use their toilets and dishwashers.
Bridge Street itself will be closed indefinitely until the culvert can be replaced and the road re-graded and re-paved.
According to Mayor Tackman, there was a minor concern that the culvert on Route 49 would not be able to handle the volume of water coming down from the Bridge Street culvert which would cause minor flooding, but the mayor says that seems unlikely.
Mayor Tackman said they hope they would be able to fix the sewer main on Sunday but the road on Bridge Street might take a while to repair.
