ANGOLA, Del. - When flood waters rise, so do challenges for people living in the Fox Hollow neighborhood. John Brady's worst fears came true when he needed to go to the hospital, but the ambulance couldn't reach his house.
When CoastTV News went to Fox Hollow on Wednesday, the flooded streets had frozen over and an Amazon van got stuck in the ice. Brady says he often goes days without mail delivery.Â
"The good people at Lewes Meals on Wheels deliver me meals every day and they've had to bring it in from the top of the hill," Brady says.
Brady has an artificial heart and wears a bag containing the equipment to keep it pumping.
"My mobility is a little bit affected by the last round of heart surgery," Brady tells CoastTV News.
When Brady fell and hit his head on a door frame, he couldn't get up and had to have an ambulance called for him. However, the ambulance was unable to get to his driveway due to the flooded streets. EMTs had to carry their medical equipment through people's yards to get inside the house. Brady's doctors said he could stay home under a concussion protocol, but he and his friends worry what would've happened if he had needed a ride to the hospital.
"He's prone to fall," says Brady's friend and one of his caretakers Jay Fox. "That could happen tomorrow. It needs to be addressed promptly for everybody here."
Past project pitches have been treading water, but District Three Sussex County Councilman Mark Schaeffer is hopeful change is coming.
"It looks like there may be a solution to be able to get an outfall pipe over to a community behind here and dump the excess water when we have heavy rainfalls, over into a wetlands area," Schaeffer says. "The challenge is getting the pipe across private property."
Brady has offered up his yard to run the pipe.
"Some of the other people didn't want it on their property," Brady says. "I'm looking at what's the best efforts for a community that's welcomed me for 25 years."
David Baird with the Sussex Conservation District tells CoastTV News when the organization was requested to assist DNREC a few years ago funding was available for a project, but construction could not move forward because too many homeowners didn't support it.
"Recently, Rep. Jeff Hilovsky and Sen. Russ Huxtable asked if DNREC and SCD could revisit the project and we are currently starting to look at alternative solutions," Baid says.