Valley homeowners preparing for next round of storms

FRESNO, Calif. (KFSN) -- Inside his new home on Filbert Avenue Alejandro Marlow is preparing for another sleepless night.

"I was out there till about midnight last week, just trying to keep the water out of the house, and now this week here we go again."

Last Thursday's storm turned roads into streams and lawns into ponds. Marlow even has a picture of him trying to direct floodwaters elsewhere, but some still seeped into his garage.

"All the water from both sides of the block runs down to my area here and my house floods first."

On Wednesday, he was fortifying his house with dozens of sandbags. Neighbors down the road are bracing for the impact too.

Linda Hayes is moving all of the family's cars onto the driveway. Last week, floodwaters nearly damaged her engine.

"It was just like a nightmare, it was really unreal, the amount of water that came down."

Neighbors believe a nearby ponding basin is the problem. They said water from their streets drain to that location. The basin is owned by Bonadelle, and neighbors claim it couldn't handle the runoff and overflowed.

"The basin's filling up, Bonadelle sent some third party individuals to pump water out and into the field with a regular pump which to me doesn't seem to very planned out," said Marlow.

The City of Fresno said Bonadelle satisfied all the requirements for building the development. They can't connect their basin to the Fresno Metropolitan Flood Control District just yet because that part of the city hasn't been fully developed.

But neighbors are having a hard time swallowing the fact their newly built homes, could not withstand the first storm of the year.

"We just want it fixed, we don't want to have to worry every time there's rain if we're gonna come home and our house is flooded," said Hayes.

Hoping this storm and others to come don't produce as much rain, at least until they have resolved the problem.

The city has crews on standby and they said their primary concern though is this wind, which could blow over trees in soft soil.