Building super preempts flood

The superintendent of a Sheepshead Bay apartment building preempted flooding in the basement by pumping water out of the building’s boiler and electrical rooms as the water began to back up out of the sewers the Sunday night before the storm.

Joe Montalvo was praised by appreciative tenants as well as the owner of the property management company at the Sea Isle, Ari Schertz, a Woodmere resident. Schertz noted that the building is three blocks away from the water and “you know you can get flooded.” They put up wood to protect large windows and glass doors for the storm and four pumps were set up to pump in the boiler room, the lowest spot in the building, “the pit.” Schertz noted that the boiler room flooded 15 years ago. This time, Montalvo set up the pumps four or five days before Hurricane Sandy hit, noted Schertz. “It was his initiative,” said Schertz, of Montalvo. “He’s been around a long time.”

Montalvo has lived in the building and has been its superintendent for 35 years. “I know the building,” he said. “I was scared if there was no pump the electric room would flood and we would be in a lot of trouble. The water was coming up already Sunday night. I saw that and put on the pump to avoid the water going to the electric meter room. If it would go there, there would be no electric for who knows how long.”

This was the second time he used pumps to preempt flooding; the first was a nor’easter six or seven years ago, he said, noting that they are at the lowest point, by the bay. “I knew that the way they were saying about the hurricane, I knew that it would happen and I wanted to try to prevent it (flooding). This was the worst. The pump is what did the job. Otherwise we would have had damage in the electric meter room.” He explained that the building has two electric meter rooms and two boiler rooms. He also noted that the private houses near the building, on Voorhees Avenue, “had a lot of water, a lot of damage.”

Although it clearly would not have helped in neighborhoods that were hit by massive flooding such as Belle Harbor and Long Beach, it might be a possible course of action where low levels of sewer back up damaged homes and electrical systems.