Providence residents fuming after sewer collapse sends dirty water cascading into their homes

PROVIDENCE, R.I. (WLNE) — It was a nightmare scenario for several Providence residents Thursday as sewage water filled their basements.

“There was sewage,” Anne Bergeron said. “And anything that you would associate with sewage was in our lower level.”

Bergeron lives on Blackstone Boulevard and said the issue goes all the way back to 2020, when a sinkhole appeared near the main sewage line.

“This has been going on for over five years,” she said. “And they just do Band-Aid fixes, it’s irresponsible, it’s reprehensible, and it’s absolutely damaging our property.”

In May, Bergeron said the hole appeared again, and the sewage line collapsed this week.

“It’s caused by the city’s lack of attending to this problem,” Bergeron said. “That they’ve known about for over five years.”

Bergeron estimated that she had lost tens of thousands of dollars in damages.

“The city needs to understand they are liable for all of this damage,” she said.

Other neighbors, like Ben Israelite, said they have been impacted too.

“I’ve got a 3-year-old and a 1-year-old,” Israelite said. “Our entire basement is filled with our kids clothes and playthings, all of it is now destroyed because it’s in sewage.”

“We find ourselves in a spot where memories we created, memories we were hoping to create are completely washed away,” he added.

With heavy rains passing through Providence, the flooding worsened, and residents said they wanted accountability.

A spokesperson for the mayor’s office shared the following statement:

The city is aware of the sewer issue near 59–63 Blackstone Boulevard, where previous work has been done. Sewer crews conducted an inspection that confirmed the main line was compromised, and repairs are currently underway.

“Everybody says the same thing, ‘It’s out of my hands, I can only do what I’m told to do,'” Bergeron said . “But the long term fix is the city has to put money into city infrastructure.”