‘Thank God we made it out’ – Barberton couple recalls last week’s flash flood damage

PHOTO PROVIDED BY ROGER MEARS
The ground has sunk at Roger and Tammy Mears’ home on 17th Street NW in Barberton.

PHOTOS PROVIDED BY ROGER MEARS
A flash flood took out a wall and destroyed furniture and irreplaceable mementoes in Roger and Tammy Mears’ basement along 17th Street NW in Barberton.

By CHRISTINA McCUNE
BGNN managing editor

Barberton and much of Summit and surrounding counties the evening of Aug. 8, Roger Mears went down to the basement of his 17th Street NW house like he usually did during rainstorms to investigate and clean up any water that might have made its way in.

“Sometimes when it rains that hard I check our basement for minor flooding,” Mears shared in a text message.
He said he was in the basement at around 9:30 p.m. squeegeeing “a little water out the back door” and his wife, Tammy, came downstairs to help.

“All of a sudden the wall let go,” Mears wrote. “Thank God we made it out.”

Several inches of rain fell on Barberton overnight filling the streets and resulting in people stranding their vehicles, losing power and having to pump water out of their basements. Barberton Police urged people to stay home and off the roads as emergency crews worked through the night. The next day, businesses and agencies offered assistance.

Roger and Tammy Mears have lived in the house since 2012. Their three pet cats were safely upstairs when water pushed in the basement wall and filled the Mears’ recreation/family room destroying irreplaceable items. The couple’s front yard also sunk in.

“We were able to make it to the basement stairs and get out,” Mears said in a text message. “We were both fighting the current and the mud that was filling the basement to get to the stairs. Water and mud was waist deep but thank God we made it. We lost everything and everything meant a lot.”

Mears described some of the meaningful items that were lost in the flood such as a bar and back bar that his parents had purchased in the 1960s along with an imitation fireplace/Stereo/AM-FM tube type radio that was built in.

“I purchased this for my Mother around 1969,” Mears wrote. “They were both in mint condition. I also lost a Jukebox that I purchased from my work a few years back. It also hurts that we lost all our Christmas decorations, including some my parents had before I was born. I could go on and on because I kept everything from my childhood.”

Mears was battling with his insurance company regarding coverage to get the basement cleaned out and property repaired, he said. An engineer was expected there on Monday to assess the damages and decide whether the home can be saved or not. Mears said after some research it appears there may be several factors that contributed to the collapse.

The couple has been able to continue to live on the first floor this past week. A friend set up a gofundme account for them at www.gofundme.com/f/support-tammy-and-rogers-flood-recovery and about half of the goal of $5,000 had been raised as of this past weekend.

A couple police officers and council members stopped by, Mears said. Neighbors have also brought food to them and some donations.

“Needless to say we have been overwhelmed by all of this,” Mears said.