SEAFORD, Del. - Part of a parking lot in Seaford housing a Walmart and other stores flooded on Friday, closing some businesses.
Seaford's Director of Public Works Berley Mears told WBOC that the Advanced Auto Parts was closed because water in the lot had started seeping into the store. Mears said the city gave the store some sandbags to combat the water.
Roughly half of the parking lot was underwater. Seaford Resident Kesia Lofland said she'd seen the parking lot flood many times before.
"It's ridiculous. It's too much water," she said. "People can't move their cars or can't get anywhere."
Trisha Newcomer, Seaford's Economic Development and IT Manager, says the flooding is overflow from adjacent storage ponds, and it's flooding into the parking lot on purpose.
"It's actually designed this way," she said. "That as the storage there fills up it would actually overflow into the parking lot."
Newcomer went on to say that the recent heavy rainfall is what caused the flooding to be even more dramatic than normal. The town got eight inches of rain in the past 24 hours.
WBOC found footage from two incidents in the past where the area flooded-- one in 2006 and one in 2011. Newcomer said that the company who owns the lot actually repaired some of the pipes a few years ago, but it wasn't enough to hold off this type of storm.
"Certainly all of those type of repairs certainly don't handle this type of a water event," she told WBOC.
Seaford Resident Lofland said she hopes something is done quickly, and likened the parking lot to a pool.
"Just get the water out of here. Do something to make it stop flooding around here," she said. "You can go swimming. The kids want to go swimming and go right over there!"
Newcomer told WBOC the city is concerned for everyone's safety, and asked that no one drive through the high water.
