Mother nature packed a powerful punch Tuesday afternoon and the Eastwood section of the city, got hit hard.
"Once it happens theres nothing you can really do, you just watch it creep up," said Louise Procino, owner of Nexes Tanning and Hair Design in Shop City Plaza in Eastwood. Soon, the water crept up the front door of her business, and came rushing in. "You kind of freak out because you have water and our tanning beds in the back, the fire department came and unplugged them for us."
"This has happened a few times before but this is the worst," said Stefanie Mangovski, an employee at the shop.
Tuesday afternoon, the shop was closed for business as employees were sweeping and shoveling out water. The parking lot out front looked more like a pond after the strong storm came through, the water was waist deep at it's peak.
"A lot of people are staring like 'where did all the rain come from?' It came out of nowhere. It started coming down like crazy and there were big things of hail coming down," said Stephen Rodriguez. The hail storm was quick, but dangerous. Some pictures sent into our CNY Central newsroom show some of the hail that fell, was as big as a golf ball.
Stranded cars were common in parking lots, and main roads throughout Eastwood. Traffic was slow moving on Teall Avenue, as cars made their way through water that was up past the tires. Many neighbors were working to rake out clogged drains, so the water had somewhere to go.
"We saw the recycling bin coming down with the cars, it was ridiculous," said Rebecca Elderbroom.
"It started coming down there were people walking down the street with no shoes on, up to their knee caps. It was hectic, you couldn't see across the street. It was really bad," said Jason Poirier.
Now, as things dry off, the costly clean up begins and some businesses are bracing for a big bill.
Nexes says the last time the salon flooded, it wasn't this bad, and it cost them $3,000 in damage.
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