Cynthia Carson was winding down after preparing her grandchildren for bed when she heard what sounded like a running shower.
It wasn’t.
From her room down down the hall, Carson could see water pouring through the walls of her daughter’s lower-level apartment.
“I couldn’t believe it,” she said. “It was like a movie.”
Within minutes, the water was ankle-deep.
The water that entered the unit was the result of Wednesday’s thunderstorms, the third night of a three-day period of heavy rainfall that swept across Wisconsin.
Outside, the underpass on West Center Street between North 30th and 32nd streets was quickly accumulating water – some of which spread to the main entrance of Community Within the Corridor, where she and her daughter, Mishayia Dupriest-Hill, has lived with her three children since November 2025.
Dupriest-Hill called the emergency maintenance line for help and waited, hoping someone would arrive quickly to help address the waterflow. But no one arrived during the initial flooding, according to the family.
After a few hours, Carson and Dupriest-Hill – unsure of when the water would stop rising in the unit or if help would ever come – made the decision to gather the children and flee to a relative’s house nearby.
Neither woman got much sleep that night. Instead, Carson said she’d lay awake, replaying the image of water pouring into the apartment and the look of disbelief on her grandchildren’s faces as the water rose around them.
“The kids were in their bed like we were on a river in a boat,” Carson said.
When the family returned the next morning, their belongings were soaked, their home unlivable and help from building management had yet to arrive.
Just before 10 a.m., nearly 12 hours after the family fled the apartment, communication from property management arrived via an email sent to all tenants.
“As you are aware,” it read, “the property and surrounding area experienced severe flooding overnight.”
Community Within the Corridor’s property management said in the email that while the water had mostly receded from the building’s underground garages and lower levels, the entrance at 3100 N. Center St. would remain closed due to street flooding.
City workers were actively working to repair street drains near the entrance, and there was nothing further Community Within the Corridor could do, they said.
“Thank you for your patience and understanding as we navigate this situation, which is currently beyond our control,” the email concluded.
Dupriest-Hill visited the property management office after reviewing the email to seek help but was met with limited assistance.
Dupriest-Hill says the flooding is just the latest in a series of problems at the building.
“It’s been so many incidents with these people,” she said. “We were out of hot water for a week not too long ago. The fire alarm goes off at least once or twice a week for hours. Everyone is so immune to it, no one gets up and goes into the hallway now.”
The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reached out to the Community Within the Corridor multiple times for comment but did not hear back in time for publication.
A maintenance worker who visited the next day to photograph the apartment acknowledged the severity of the damage but said nothing could be done until conditions dried.
On Friday, after a city inspector visited the unit, maintenance arrived to remove the standing water, but Carson says the job was not as thorough as it should have been. Water remains in her bedroom closet and under her bed, and she still worries that mold will begin to form without a proper cleanup.
The family returned home on Sunday night, after staying with relatives and friends through Friday’s storms.
For now, the family is focused on what comes next.
They are questioning whether the apartment can be made safely livable again.
Dupriest-Hill is also considering whether to remain in the building at all.
April Quevedo covers Metcalfe Park for the Journal Sentinel’s Neighborhood Dispatch. Contact: aquevedo@usatodayco.com.
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This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Water from flooded underpass spreads to Community Within the Corridor lobby, resident units
Reporting by April Quevedo, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel / Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
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