Water leak leaves thousands of gallons of contaminated water in north Cheyenne homes

A firefighter had to enter the flooded basement to shut off the flow of electricity to the house. The basement had been flooded with 55,000 gallons of water, Peterson was told.

“We were very fortunate that my sister is not here this week, because she lives in the room downstairs,” Peterson said, “I keep having nightmares that she was actually here and just waking up, sitting up in my bed going, ‘Oh my God.’”

Peterson has a young son who has also been terrified by the incident.

“My son was vomiting for three days straight,” Peterson said. “He wasn’t sick, he just kept shaking and then would throw up. ... We sent him to my mom’s for some stability because we were going to be here trying to fix stuff.”

But the Petersons weren’t the only family affected. She estimated that around 20 properties had some level of damage from the incident. Alan Jones of Cowboy Jones Carpet Cleaning told the Wyoming Tribune Eagle that around nine houses on or near Darnell Place have some kind of damage, and at least five houses have internal damage.

The Hernandez family, the Petersons’ next-door neighbors to the south, have also experienced severe personal and psychological devastation after last week’s flood.

“All of a sudden, we hear a really loud crash,” Rosa Hernandez, a five-months-pregnant mother of two, told the WTE. “... I get up and my husband goes to check. I check on the kids, and they were crying, and I was like, ‘Well, what is this?’ We couldn’t find anything upstairs. So then we check ... the back door and there’s water seeping in.

“... So, we’re kind of freaking out, we go, we check outside, and the whole street’s a river.”

“Rosie and most of our neighbors have nowhere to go,” Peterson added.

While their houses are filled with contaminants, and they wait on quotes for repairs, along with uncertainty from the city about whether they will be compensated for the damages, Peterson said many people are living in a compromised position for the foreseeable future.

“Most of our neighbors are staying on the top floor of their home with space heaters because they have nowhere else to go,” she said. “We don’t have the finances to live in hotels right now, none of us do. I mean, our insurance agent told us no one should be staying in their homes right now. Where are we gonna go?”

The damage has pushed some Darnell Place residents, many of whom are young families, into financially precarious situations. The unique set of circumstances surrounding the incident has meant that most standard insurance options are off the table. Because the damage came from an external pipe, homeowners insurance will not cover the damage. Flood insurance wouldn’t apply either, because the incident was not an officially declared natural disaster.

This leaves the people with damage, which Peterson was told could cost around $80,000, only one option for potential financial recourse: the Wyoming Association of Risk Management, which insures the Cheyenne Board of Public Utilities.

But the Peterson and Hernandez families both said they’ve heard little from local government and are skeptical that a claim with WARM would give them the recourse they want.

“We went to our insurance agent ... and they were, like, crying in the office with us,” Peterson said. “They tried everything. And then, to hear nothing — even supportive — from the city, whose water flooded our home ... BOPU, whose pipe broke ... has been disheartening, because, you know, we pay our taxes. We pay our water bills. We love where we live. The government’s supposed to protect people and, right now, we’re getting the runaround.”

A public information officer with the BOPU told the WTE that agents responded to the incident, and confirmed that the way people affected by the incident could seek compensation was through WARM.

“None of us can file a claim right now, because we need to know exact damages,” Peterson continued. “I imagine it’ll take another month before we even submit a claim, because you usually want a lawyer to do that for you.

“I’m not a person to feel lost and confused. I have enough experience in various ways that I can usually find a way to help. That’s what I like to do; I like to help people. We can’t even help ourselves right now.”

But both families that spoke to the WTE said that the community has stepped up to support them, from Cowboy Jones to Landyn Medina with Connections Cheyenne, who’s trying to organize fundraisers for the families affected by the ruptured pipe.

“We’ve been posting on Facebook, we’ve got a group of people who want to volunteer to help with some fundraising activities for these guys,” Medina said. “So, we’ve gotten food donations, we’ve gotten some cash donations, we’ve gotten gift cards and coupons. Qdoba is willing to do a profit-sharing night with us, where we get some of the proceeds. Culvers is going to do one with us, as well. Then, we’re going to do just a couple of fundraisers to try and get some money to help these families out.”

Medina also said Jones was instrumental in helping the families in the area by volunteering his services before he was guaranteed payment.

“Other people that they got bids from wanted money right away,” he added. “Alan’s not wanting to put, you know, even more of a burden on (the Petersons), but it’s not cheap to do those services either, you know. It’s not cheap to clean out thousands and thousands of gallons of water out of someone’s home. So, that’s something that you know, can definitely do a big number on his business, but he’s trying his best to keep that burden off (the Petersons), which I think is pretty admirable.”

“I feel an obligation to people,” Jones said. “People deserve to have a home that they’re safe in, and live in, and I don’t feel right having equipment sitting in a shop that could be helping somebody save their house.”

Ward 3 City Council member Michelle Aldrich visited the area, too, and was able to speak to many residents in person and on the phone. She told the WTE about her experience meeting the people affected by the incident. Aldrich spoke with Hernandez’s husband, Antonio, at length when she visited the neighborhood on Friday.

“It was heartbreaking to have him talk about the impact that it’s had on their family,” Aldrich said. “His dad had passed away a couple of years ago. He had a box of his dad’s clothes in the basement that they’re trying to salvage. ... When I got the information, I had no idea that it was the magnitude that it was.”

Mayor Patrick Collins also spoke with the WTE Tuesday evening about the incident.

“Obviously the Board of Public Utilities is a city agency, but they’re independent from the city of Cheyenne,” Collins said. “I don’t have any input into the decisions that they make, other than once a year when they bring their budget to us.”

Collins went on to say that the decisions regarding the matter would be made by the BOPU, and he would not have oversight over the decision-making process. He also said that the agency met with WARM on Monday to discuss how the agencies would handle the claims.

“What I’ve been told is, damage to this level is very unusual, but it does happen,” he continued. “... This one’s pretty horrific. ... It’s a very devastating thing, so, I feel very empathetic toward these poor families.”

Until the people affected can go through the WARM process and the agency makes a decision on the validity of their claims, the people affected by the flooding and broken water main have limited options, and must rely on community support and their income to make ends meet while they struggle to fix their houses.