Overnight storms cause flooding in Fairdale

By Elizabeth Donatelli

LOUISVILLE (WAVE) -- People across Kentuckiana are experiencing flooding. Some are stuck in their homes and others are worried about their loved ones. WAVE 3's Elizabeth Donatelli reports on the situation in Fairdale.

Residents in one Fairdale neighborhood got more than they bargained for when they woke up Friday morning.

"My neighbor called me at about a quarter to six and said you better go check on your horses and when I swam out there they had water up to their chest," said Heather Nicols who lives in Fairdale.

She said she panicked as she watched the water rise with her horses trapped inside the barn. Luckily, Nicols had friends around willing to help. Willy, her quarterhorse is now safe inside her neighbor's barn.

"Poor fellow," said Nicols when she visited her horse. "You got kicked out of your home, haven't you?"

Willy spent the morning enjoying breakfast.

"They gave him some hay," Nicols said of her neighbors.  "I can't get to my hay right now I just thank God for some good neighbors, excellent neighbors."

The neighbors, the Maddox's, say they learned their lesson after the flood of 1997 when the water climbed five feet inside of their barn. They rebuilt the barn several feet higher to protect their horses in case of a future flood like this one.

"They're dry," said Nick Maddox of his horses. "Every other horse two bars down from us, they're underwater."

MSD crews drove by the neighborhood, but said they weren't there to pump, just to survey the damage.

"They should be over there on the other side of the street pumping this water out of here they're not helping us at all," said Nicols.

Nicols said her next move is to put her house on the market.

"I have no choice," Nicols said.  "I can't do this.  If it gets up in the house, this is all I have."