The Quarters in East Lansing on Abbot was afflicted by last night's storms, inundating one of the parking areas and the lower lying apartments Jun 17, 2024.
Low-lying areas were flooded in East Lansing after a thunderstorm Monday morning. The Quarters of East Lansing, an apartment complex located on Abbot Road, experienced severe flooding issues in the parking lot with some cars completely submerged.
A text was sent to residents informing them of the emergency and tow trucks were sent to pull out cars damaged by the water.
Emerson Voss, a Quarters resident, said the majority of flooding she saw was at the entrance of the apartment complex and lower parking lot. Some residents are affected more than others by floods due to the complex's geographical slope, Voss said.
“We don’t really get anything because we live up on the hill,” Voss said. “My friend's building is lower down and she said she’s seen a little water in the basement before.”
The flooding has impacted some residents’ ability to leave the complex.
Chloe Somerville, another resident of the Quarters, said she couldn't leave her apartment to attend her in-person internship despite the presence of emergency exits.
“(On) either side of me, they opened up emergency exits,” Somerville said. “I can’t get out the front way and I can’t get out going towards the office or the building either because (the flood's) deeper that way.”
Voss said flooding of this nature has happened before during the school year and there’s been a few times she hasn’t been able to leave due to similar issues.
"I didn’t want to take my car through that,” Voss said. “The only other way out of the apartments is essentially to take the bus, but you also have to walk through some pretty big puddles to get to the bus stop. It makes it pretty hard to leave.”
Somerville said she woke up this morning and did not have power, which went out around 4:00 a.m. on Monday to her knowledge.
“We’ve seen it before when it rains pretty heavily,” Somerville said. “I think the reason this time it was so different is because the pump needs power to be working.”
Somerville said she read reviews online about previous flooding in 2021. Voss also mentioned reading reviews and having knowledge of the flooding issues, however, she had not been explicitly told this by the management company.
“I would’ve appreciated if (the Quarters) had sent out more warnings,” Voss said. “Especially for the rain that came through last night; there was nothing until this morning until after it had already flooded.”
The management company of the apartment complex declined to comment on the matter.
By 5 p.m. on Monday, there were still cars in the flooded parking lot.
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