A Tempe man is picking up what is left of his home after a water main break last week pushed a river of water into residences.
He and his family are now looking for a short-term place to stay as crews repair his home.
“I’ve got an abundance of stuff that was submerged,” said Neil Sundberg.
Crews with East Valley Disaster Services packed away all of Sundberg’s worldly possessions on Monday. The home he is leaving behind for now will look different when he comes back.
“We’ll lose our kitchen cabinets, they’re telling us, and I got some wood thresholds, they’re going to take all that out. Yeah, it’s going to be some serious change,” he said.
ABC15 caught up with Sundberg last week as cleanup crews tried to contain the flood of water that all stemmed from a water main break across the street.
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All the mud and water is mostly gone now, but Sundberg has spent countless hours cleaning, drying and organizing all their stuff.
“Yeah, it’s been a little stressful,” he said.
As crews help move everything to a storage facility, Sundberg, his wife and the Arizona State University students who rent with him will need a new place to stay for now, maybe for a couple of months.
“Trying to find a place for eight of us and trying to find a place that you can know what to take with you,” said Sundberg.
So what of the cost of all this? It will be expensive, according to Sundberg. But the City of Tempe says they will foot the bill entirely. For Sundberg, it is the kind of news he is willing to soak in.
“First we got to find a place to go. That’s number one. And if we can get through that, we got it made,” he said.
Sundberg says he is very thankful for the community outpouring that he has seen over the last few days, especially his neighbors who have all come out to support him in any way they can.
