53rd Avenue North is a small, quiet residential neighborhood in Pinellas County.
But for the last few weeks, the sights and sounds of an active construction zone have identified the neighborhood.
“I’m feeling better that it’s almost done. I’m tired of looking at the equipment,” said Barry Medlock.
Barry Medlock’s home sits right in front of the construction; that has the entire street dug up.
Medlock can’t access his driveway, his mailbox, or set his trash out. But that’s better than the alternative.
ABC Action News reporter Jada Williams first visited Medlock’s house on Aug. 28. That’s when his yard has a rapidly flowing river of raw sewage running through it.
“I was talking myself, ‘Here we go again’. I was like, it’s probably me. I thought it’s gonna be my house. And it sure was. It was the whole yard,” he recalled.
More than 4 million gallons of sewage rushed through the neighborhood, the majority of which inundated Medlock’s yard. That was the third sewage spill in four years.