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Normally fire fighters put water into a house when called to an emergency scene.  But last month a third of the 73 fire calls were to take water out of houses because of a storm that exceeded an estimated $500,000 in water damage county-wide August 8.  Lansing fire officials say they received about 25 911 emergency calls because of flooding on the 8th and 9th.  Fire Chief Scott Purcell says that while some of those calls were legitimate, others were an abuse of the emergency response system, and of those, some were repeat offenders.

"If it's high enough where you have two or three feet of water in your basement your furnace could be in danger," Purcell said, noting that some of the calls were perfectly legitimate.  "The ones that had a couple of inches -- we said 'see you later'.  But they called back.  They said, 'We thought some different guys would come'.  People were misused but that's alright."

There were no different guys to come.  Volunteer fire fighters were kept busy responding in a pickup truck and a fire emergency boat vehicle with portable electrical and gas powered pumps.  For a while there were so many calls that fire responders also used one of the big trucks to get pumps where they were needed.

Tompkins County legislators applied for state emergency funding last month to help pay for damage in Enfield and about $300,000 worth of damage to county infrastructure.  The Lansing Highway Department also received multiple calls during and after the August 8th storm.  Flooding was particularly bad on East Shore Drive near Esty Hill.

Despite abuses of the system, some residents were grateful for the fire department's help.  Purcell says he received one thank you letter from a homeowner whose basement was pumped.

Last Sunday another storm caused more flooding, but it prompted only two calls Monday for basement flooding, and one for a tree down on Emmons Road.

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