Rating:

0.0 (0 votes)

TUCSON - All that road construction around Tucson may be giving you headaches, but was a nightmare for two neighbors on the northwest side.

They lost a huge fight with Mother Nature. And then had to battle a construction company, whose road work they blame for a major monsoon mess inside their homes.

Janet Krug watches one of those homes for her elderly neighbor, who's been away since summer.

Janet saw a mid-July monsoon storm sweep eight inches of water into her neighbor's houses.

Pete Cuniff is the other neighbor, who saw his home of 27 years turned into a wading pool.

Cuniff said, "It was scary, it all came up real fast. And all of a sudden the water started flowing in the back gate towards the house, and I said oh, we've got problems now."

Both homeowners blame a construction company that was doing roadwork nearby. They had moved so much dirt, that it changed the flow of the storm water, thus swamping their yards - instead of flowing away from the houses like it used to.

The mess left both homeowners with tens of thousands of dollars in damage.

"I'm just kind of waiting for claims to go through because I can't really afford to do the construction so I'm going to have to wait for that to come along," said Cuniff.

The homeowners contacted the county and the construction company working on this road for compensation.

At first, the construction company through an insurance provider, denied responsibility for the flood.

But then Pima County got involved, and all that changed.

Priscilla Cornelio, of the Pima County Transportation Department, told The News 4 Tucson Investigators, "We reminded the construction company to look at their contracts and their insurance that they provide us, Pima co, when they win a job."

An attorney representing the construction company, KE&G, sent this statement to The Investigators on Tuesday.

KE&G Construction Inc., the County's general contractor, and its insurer, Cincinnati Insurance Company, have reach full and complete settlements with both homeowners, and have paid the claims in full. -Peter Collins, attorney representing KE&G

If you have a story for the News 4 Tucson Investigators, send us an email by clicking here.