Loretta Rodgers, April 27th, 2024

Doris Lanzkron-Tamarazo: I'm Doris Lanzkron-Tamarazo. it's April 27th, 2024, and I'm sitting here with, please say your name.

Loretta Rodgers: Loretta Rodgers.

DLT: And can you please spell your name for me?

LR: L o r e t t a R o d g e r s.

DLT: Thank you. And do you live in the city of Detroit?

LR: Yes.

DLT: How long have you lived here?

LR: In the city of Detroit? 67. More than 67 years.

DLT: And what neighborhood do you live in?

LR: I live in the Jefferson Chalmers area now.

DLT: And have you been living there the whole time, or have you lived other places?

LR: No. I've been living in the Jefferson Chalmers area for 45 years. And before then, I grew up with, was born in Black Bottom. And then from there, just a couple of years on Jefferson and Fisher.

DLT: And why did you end up moving to Jefferson Chalmers?

LR: Jefferson Chalmers, you can say Jefferson and Fisher from Girardin, an area around 94 and Mount Elliott area. I lived in Black Bottom until I was 13. And then, from 13 to, I would say 21, pretty much in the, Mount Elliott-94 area. And then, leaving home to go on my own was Fisher. And I lived over there for a couple of years, and then I moved to Jefferson and Chalmers, Chalmers right at Jefferson for a couple of years. And then the home that I'm in now, for, like 43, so the Jefferson Chalmers area for 45 years.

DLT: Do you work in the city of Detroit?

LR: I worked for Detroit, other areas. But I worked at Detroit Edison for ten years, and I left them and in ’94, no, I left them in ‘89. Because I didn't go back to work after my second generation child and, then became self-employed. And I became self-employed full time traveling state to state in 1994, and I was successfully self-employed until we had the flooding in 2021, which all of my merchandise was in the basement due to the pandemic. And, five feet of water put me out of business.

DLT: Can you tell me a little bit more about your experience with the ‘21 flood?

LR: Just woke up one morning, that Saturday morning, and, my daughter says, mom, have you—she lives in Warren—have you been downstairs yet? And I hadn't gone downstairs. And she said, stay on the line. Go downstairs. Because I heard some things on the news that you all have water in your basement. And, we're talking ten racks of brand new clothing and just tons of buckets and tons of that, every— Even though I had buckets, you know, this big, full of African wood stacked three high. 50-some buckets. Everything floated all over the entire basement.
So it took out, of course, all the utilities, the furnace, the upright freezer. High water heater, washing. Machine and dryer. And then just thousands and thousands and thousands of dollars worth of merchandise, along with a couple of racks, because I would switch out my summer to winter. So all of my two winter racks. And I had to throw away everything because they said anything the sewer water hit, you have to throw it away. So even though in ‘16, I had like three feet of water, and at that time, all the buckets and bags would be all over the floor, you know, I have a large basement. And so in ‘16, when it happened, they said, get shelving. And so I had shelving around the entire basement. Gradually, the five foot that you get from Home Depot or Sam's Club. And they said, don't put anything on your bottom shelf. Just work the rest of them up.
So even though I had things only on the second up to the fifth, five feet of water. it didn't make a difference. So we're talking piles of brand new clothing, you know, just by the dozens, dozens all around. We're just talking massive. And at this time and age, at my age, I am, I just couldn't even afford to go buy all that stuff back over again and start this late. I had to, you know, actually retire that 22 January. I just had to.

DLT: And are you involved in the Treehouse Center?

LR: I am. You know, whatever Tammy needs, I'm there, but I can't do—I have a scoliosis curve. And as you get older, the bones or whatever, I can't do any physical work. But when she needs me for anything, you know, she calls me.

DLT: And how long have you been involved with the Treehouse?

LR: I would just only say just going on—Like, they have an event or whatever, I would have to say the past two years.

DLT: And how did you get involved to begin with?

LR: She has a function going on, or maybe like a community gathering or whatever. So I've gone over there with another individual who kind of let me know, one of the other seniors, let me know about it a couple of years ago. So I've gone over, you know, probably even before the flood stopped by, and just sat with her while it was like an event, and the kids were there, and someone was doing face painting and things like that.

DLT: And can you tell me a little bit about what the Treehouse does about mitigating the effects of flooding?

LR: That information I don't have, I've just more of—I know people, you know, go sit for relaxation. And I see some of the seniors just go for relaxation and sitting.

DLT: Can you tell me a little bit more about that work with the Treehouse?

LR: I’m not, I wouldn't have any more information other than just go and visit. Taking advantage of the area that you can go and enjoy yourself.

DLT: And what are some of the other, like, major programs the Treehouse does that, you know about or are involved in?

LR: That particular one? Not the Treehouse itself. I just came to one of the meetings where I saw some of the youth that when she was talking about the, the people that signed up for the solar. And I just came, you know, just sit for the information for the people. The new ones that signed up, they got approved to be in that program. But I don't know a lot about the program, I'm just listening and learning.

DLT: Would you say that the flooding in the neighborhood has gotten worse over time? Or has it always been at a similar level?

LR: Worse. What we had in 2021 was the worst.

DLT: What has been the effect of that on the community?

LR: Devastating. They're still individuals today, to my understanding—we're talking 2021—still do not have furnaces. I know the lady, one of the seniors across the street from me when it happened to ‘21. She went through that whole winter of ‘21 with no furnace. She did not get a furnace until the next year in the summer.

DLT: And how do people, like, deal with these issues? What are some of the ways that people react to the flooding?

LR: There have been a lot of community meetings, which I've been going to several, of the actual officials of the Detroit Public Waterworks, DWSP I think it is. And then also the Detroit Water Department. So I've been going to several of the meetings of individuals. You know, seeing what can they come up with to—solution can they come up with to stop this from coming into the basement, which Duggan did come up with a program, our mayor, of providing backup sewers. And at the time they said, you know, if you sign up for it, you can get a backup sewer and also a sump pump. I just, three weeks ago, got the backup sewer, got the work done in the backyard.
Well, mine would have been the backyard because my sewer line comes—and the reason why I said backyard, because my next door neighbors, very few of the individuals’ sewer line comes from the front of their house. So where the individuals that have the sewer lines that come from the front of their house, my neighbor got no more than a [] size of flood. So they got way less, because I guess the overload of the sewer coming in is from the people that have it coming from the alley to their home.

DLT: And what are your thoughts on the city's response to the flooding? Do you feel that's been sufficient? Insufficient?

LR: I would definitely have to say. With all of that happening and you know you've had previous ones several times, I would say it was insufficient. But of course, they speak on the overload of the system. But there have been, you know, other individuals at the meeting, and all I can specify is what what said at the meeting, that particularly our location that is at the Connors Creek water pump, Jefferson and Connors, that if they just had had a individual physically at the pumping station to flip a switch, we never would have gotten that back up.
Knowing that it's already announced, the weather, that it’s going to be this heavy rain and flooding that you should have had someone, they said you should have had someone minding that station, and with the flick of a switch, a particular level would have automatically let that water go, I would say, I guess it would have been going to the Detroit River, rather than— So all of a sudden—because that also happened, I guess, in ‘16—the water could be sitting there. And with the pop of a finger, it sucks down. And that's because somebody was there to flip the switch to automatically, the water was standing, would go down. So once that water's left like that, you're talking just a bunch of black mush over the entire basement and wherever else that stuff touches

DLT: And do you have any thoughts on why that wasn't done in this case? Why the switch was not flipped in time?

LR: Well, I'm getting different things, according to the city officials, they’re stating that it was just an overload, that it had nothing to do with an individual at the station. But then there were individuals, when this was going on, that was at the meeting, that they were over there and tried to enter themselves. And I guess maybe it was people that previously have worked there, or something, because we got people that work for the city in our area, and that the gate was locked. And there just happened to be an individual who was over there to get in, but they had to wait for someone to come with a key to let him in. And once that individual went in to flip that switch, that's in ’21, that's when the water automatically suctioned, left the basement.

DLT: And do you think the city's responses have improved since 2021, or do you think they're about the same?

LR: I've been in a meeting since, and we've had a couple of rains, like last year in August. I didn't get it, thank goodness. And the sump pump was not in, because I just got my sump pump three—not the sump pump, I just got my backup three weeks ago, and I did not, I just got a little bit running in in certain areas. So I didn't get the, you know, that was pretty much the flooding, nothing of the actual sewer. But there were several individuals at the meeting that they got two, three, four feet of water, again in their basement.

DLT: And have you used the Treehouse’s flooding app that they made in partnership with the National Weather Service?

LR: No, but I was at the meeting that we had up here [Community Center at A.B. Ford], the first meeting they had, and that was the individual coming up with, if there's a weather, something's going to go on, so that we are notified and just say, for instance, if you have something in the basement that you could get up, to remove it or whatever. And also like, Tammy just happened to mention that the individuals actually signed up with their number to be able to notify, some of the couple of people there were the president of their block club, and they did say that they, you know, they signed up to make sure that the weather person will, they will get the message quick, and then they would also be able to provide that information to the people in your neighborhood.

DLT: So what impact do you think the app’s been able to have on the neighborhoods?

LR: Nothing has taken place. No, I've gotten no emergency call that it was going to be, to my block. I have the regular one recently now, that I signed up for with the weather. And so if it is severe weather, something going on in my area, I will get it on my phone and it comes to the email. Excuse me. It'll come to my phone saying, “National weather alert, please be advised that if it's heavy winds or heavy rain.” So I will get that on my phone now.

DLT: What would you say are the community's biggest needs regarding these environmental challenges?

LR: Being more informed of— No, I would say, see, the weather, if you're looking at the news, the weather will let you know that there's going to be this heavy and severe storm. So I would say, with the officials, as far as going to the water stations and like the meeting that we have up here, because I guess these individuals can kind of tell 24 hours in advance notice or whatever. So it's a different system set up than our regular weather that we supposed to be notified in our area. But, if a person has living quarters in their basement where an individual lives, you can't move all of that furniture and beds and whatever to be able to get it out.
So it's like, what can, you know— Oh, but I, and also going to a few of the meetings I see that Detroit is building more pumping stations? Or working to enhance or even make the ones that we do have better. So I know they are building a new one in the Freud, not too far off of Jefferson area. And then I know it's another one off to the left up there. And I've heard that they're going to expand, and I guess they’re talking making the pipes better for more to go through. The lines of our sewer.

DLT: And if the city could offer, like, one type of infrastructure to deal with these problems, what would your ideal kind of infrastructure be?

LR: Well, I think if the infrastructure was set up with just Detroit line going through, we not only have, we have some of the suburban area lines connected to ours, and that's what's causing the overflow. And so of course, at the meeting there it’s said we need to have those other suburban areas disconnect from our lines. And we, there's no definitive answer they're giving that they're going to stop it, no matter how many times it’s brought up at all the meetings.

DLT: So you'd want to have the lines disconnected from the suburban ones. That would be your ideal project?

LR: Oh, absolutely. And let them run their own lines to their area. I know Grosse Pointe have some lines coming through. I know Centerline, and I, okay, where Eastland is, I don't know what that area— But it's like four different area lines outside of ours is connected to our Detroit sewer lines running through, and that's an overload of us here. But like I said, no, even though several times they’re saying, you know, let those individuals run their lines in their city, they do not give that information because those individuals are paying for their lines. To be connected to the Detroit lines. So as long as that going on, so I guess that's the purpose of now, working on how having new sump pump stations built or expanding them, to see if that's going to solve the problem.

DLT: And do you have any particular hopes or fears for kind of the future of like the flooding response in Detroit's?

LR: I'm hoping that if what they're doing with these sump pump stations, if there are the, I would say land, to be able to build the new ones, and that will totally take away the heavy load that they're saying. I'm just hoping that if that works, once those are made, you know, once those systems are built and in place, and if we're not having any more flooding, with the other 3 or 4 subdivisions connected to ours, then I hope they don't take it to a liking to say other, even other suburban areas can connect because we have a bigger system now, and we wind up back with the same problems that we're having, just for money from these other locations.

DLT: And did you have any final thoughts you wanted to share?

LR: No, that's just about it. You did a pretty good job of covering what I know.

DLT: Thank you.

LR: I'm not nearly as advanced with the information that, you know, [Laughter] Tammy would have of all the different organizations that she's involved there, because of course, I was on the road for almost 40 years. I still went to all of my block club meetings, so I didn't miss my block club

DLT: Yeah, no, thank you so much. This has been great.

LR: Thank you.