The storms and floods that battered central Indiana last week damaged more than 500 homes throughout the city of Indianapolis, causing an estimated $36 million of damage, city officials said Aug. 21.
Homes and properties were inundated: Five feet of flooding in a barn. A submerged furnace. Twenty inches of murky water rushing through first-floor bedrooms. As the water recedes from the floods, Indianapolis officials, business owners and residents have begun assessing the damage.
City workers this week inspected 3,000 homes and more than 150 businesses in affected areas like Rocky Ripple, North Broad Ripple and Ravenswood. As of noon on Friday, Aug. 21, nearly 20% of homes they inspected showed signs of damage, the extent of which varied from cosmetic issues to total losses.
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As of noon on Friday, Aug. 21, the city documented 552 residential properties with flood damage. The high-level estimate for residential damage costs is $36,842,535.00, according to Abbey Brands, director of the Department of Business and Neighborhood Services.
According to the city's growing database of rapid damage assessments, most Rocky Ripple residences avoided significant structural issues.
As of 7:30 a.m. on Friday, city workers had identified 87 residential properties with "major damage," Brands wrote in an email. When they reached the hardest hit portions of Ravenswood, that number rose.
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The inspectors found homes with significant structural damage that are unsafe to inhabit. Load-bearing walls were broken and foundations compromised.
"A couple people I've talked to, [the flooding] completely destroyed their HVAC system, completely destroyed their air conditioning. They didn't have power," said Cody Melville, a BNS inspector.
As of noon on Aug. 21, inspectors had documented a total of 236 homes in such a state and four homes destroyed beyond repair. They expect to find more damage as the water recedes in Ravenswood and damage assessments continue next week, Brands said.
Many houses had lesser issues: 183 residential properties showed signs of cosmetic damage, and another 129 had slightly more issues, like broken windows, but were still safe to inhabit with minor repairs.
A few businesses were impacted too, according to current estimates, placing the monetary cost of flood damage for commercial properties around $1.6 million.
The city plans to finish inspections next week and send the data to the state and the Federal Emergency Management Agency as a part of their funding request for disaster recovery. If your home sustained damage in the floods, Brands recommends documenting it thoroughly and submitting your information to the city's disaster damage database.
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Sophie Hartley is an IndyStar environment reporter. You can reach her at [email protected] or on X at @sophienhartley. IndyStar's environmental reporting is made possible through the generous support of the nonprofit Nina Mason Pulliam Charitable Trust.
This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: Flood's aftermath in Indy: Hundreds of homes, millions in damages