Homes, roads and even city hall flooded in Roseville, mayor signs emergency declaration for city

ROSEVILLE, Mich. (FOX 2) - The video shows it all: a waterfall from the service drive onto I-696 eastbound. 

Happening Saturday night, the downpour that hit the city of Roseville brought with it much expected flood damages to homes, roads and even city hall.

"God it was just crazy, it just came down like you know - we've never seen it here," said Alan Deburghgraeve.

Deburghgraeve took the original footage showing the streaming water onto the highway. Happening at Groesbeck, he said the ensuing flood stood went multiple feet high.

"696 was three-to-four feet deep," he said.

And where there's roads blocked off by water, there's also homes suffering flood damage.

"The street was flooded and then I looked at the basement and it was a foot and a half to two feet of water," said Penny Bush.

Bush lost everything in her basement. Jennifer Harp's experience tells a similar story.

"We lost couches, a lot of clothes, doors, just a lot of personal items," Harp said. "Pictures - stuff like that. That's just not really replaceable."

Scan the sides of streets of houses that were damaged and Deburghgraeve said you could see piles of stuff "everywhere."

"Wedding photos and irreplaceable stuff. It's just crazy," he said.

And Harp will remind others, this isn't the first time the city has been struck by torrential rain.

"The material things, I guess can be replaced but you can't replace the memories," Harp said. "You know this is the second time it's happened in five years."

Harp's math checks out too. It's not clear how many people have been affected by the flooding, but the damage has been extensive - so much so the mayor has signed an emergency declaration on Monday for the city.

"We're asking our residents that if they have a problem, contact the city manager's office," said Mayor Robert Taylor. "Take your pictures, take your video. Everybody's got cell phones."

Currently, the city is drying out its voting machines. Lines of the boxes were sitting in the sun drying out. They became saturated with water after storm-water found its way into city hall. The declaration is meant to free up emergency funds for those affected by the floods.

"We're hoping that the governor and our emergency manager from the county will be able to reimburse some of our residents," said Taylor.