GRANITE CITY, Ill. — At Granite City Auto Upholstery, David Miller is used to seeing customers bring in flooded cars, but his own location along Madison Avenue is also prone to street flooding.
"Anytime it rains significantly, it looks like a beach out here," Miller said.
And on August 12 -- when the flash flooding hit -- Miller called the situation, "a mess, all the way up and down the street."
A new lawsuit from Metro East Sanitary District places some of the blame on Granite City and its sewer system.
"The original sewer grate was originally 10 or 12 inches deep, and it has been paved over and over," MESD Executive Director Stephen Adler said while holding a photo of a storm drain. "There's not a sewer system in America that is going to operate properly if you've got maintenance issues like this."
Adler says their ditch was working properly on August 12th, and he says he has the video to show that flooding was largely contained to the city's system.
Granite City Mayor Ed Hagnauer said he can't respond to the MESD complaint because the City hasn't been served or seen the lawsuit.
Several Granite City taxpayers have also filed a lawsuit blaming MESD leadership for flood damage.
City leaders previously said Granite City received as many as 9 inches of rain in a few hours, overwhelming a system that isn't designed for that kind of volume.
