‘You feel like you’re in prison’ says Belfield Drive resident as Johnston braces for more rain

JOHNSTON, R.I. (WLNE) — With more rain headed to Southern New England, one resident in Johnston said she feels like she’s living in a prison, stuck at her home for weeks on end every time it floods.

“Living in a town where the taxes are expensive, Johnston, and not being able to live a normal life, sometimes you feel like you’re in prison in your home because you can’t go anywhere,” said Tania Nova, a resident of Belfield Drive in Johnston.

Nova has been living on Belfield Drive since 2008 and said the area has been flooding on and off since 2010.

14 years later, Nova and her family can only prepare to be stuck at home for days, or even weeks, on end anytime it rains.

“We just get a lot of food and we live on that,” Nova said. “We’ve been able to work from home, but other neighbors are not.”

A spokesperson for the mayor’s office said the town has pumps on standby and is monitoring the situation on Belfield Drive as the town braces for more rain.

According to Nova, the pumps do not help much.

“It’s like a blood transfusion,” Nova said. “You get the blood out, you get it back in to the same body, in the same river, so even if you pump out the water, the river will bring it right back, so it’s a lost battle.”

Since Nova lives at the end of Belfield Drive, she is trapped anytime it floods, with the highway on one side of her home and high waters on the other.

“In 2010, we lost a car, we got trapped in the water and we almost died,” Nova said. “And I’m just afraid to lose another car or to lose our lives through the water.”

Nova said, with no end in sight, the hope is for the town to offer home buyouts, something Mayor Joe Polisena Jr. previously said is the only permanent solution moving forward.

“There are children that need to go to school, people who need to live normal lives,” Nova said. “Please help…have empathy…we need help.”

A spokesperson for the mayor’s office said there have been no updates yet from the federal government regarding home buyouts on Belfield Drive.