Residents of the Griesbach community are facing a big clean up after a sewage back up affected as many as 55 homes.
On Saturday EPCOR said it had received 20 complaints of basements being filled with sewer water, however more calls have since flooded in.
“There’s a lot of damage because I have two sofas, two chairs, TV, wall units and all of my winter gear down there,” said Griesbach resident Suesan Assaf. “And there's the washer, the dryer, the furnace and the hot water tank.”
Assaf is one of many in the area still waiting for help.
“Insurance can’t do anything until Monday,” she said.
Officials with EPCOR say heavy rain pushed the sewers over capacity.
“Our large diameter trunk sewer that runs in the north part of the city is running at full capacity right now and that's what's caused all the problems,” said Clayton Tiedemann with EPCOR.
The utility company says its crews are working around the clock to ease the pressure on the swollen system by diverting some of the flow from the large trunk sewer to a different area.
Residents of the nearby Calder neighbourhood say they have been battling issues since mid-week.
“My basement and life has been turned upside down in eight inches of sewage,” said Calder resident Lisa Mills.
Much of Mills’ bedroom furniture and belongings aren’t salvageable, as she’s spent the last four days working with a restoration company to save what she can.
“They'll have to measure how high up on the gyproc it went, they'll have to cut out, they'll have to do an asbestos test because I'm in an older neighbourhood, in an older house.”
EPCOR officials say it could still take a few days for the system to get back to normal.
The utility provider is asking residents in northwest Edmonton to limit their water usage for the time being.
With files from CTV Edmonton’s Amanda Anderson
