BATON ROUGE - One man has flooded three times in five months. Now he's considering doing the parish's work himself.

Edmund Greene purchased a building with four rental condominiums in 2021. They're located along S. Flannery Road in the Sherwood Forest area. The condos had a history of flooding, but Greene says he was unaware at the time of sale. It wasn't until he noticed water creeping up toward the front doors during a storm did he find that he had a problem.

"This whole entire area floods when it gets a light rain, doesn't even have to be a heavy storm rain just consistent rain for four hours and it's going to flood this entire area," he said.

The first time the units took on water while he has owned them was in September 2022. He says his tenants had to be rescued by the fire department. The units have flooded two other times since, most recently on January 29.

Greene bought the property as an investment and put a lot of money into the units to provide a nice home to tenants. Instead, that investment has turned into a whole lot of work, stress and frustration. He's had to tear out the flooring, baseboards, appliances and cabinets several times.

He's thankful he has flood insurance, even though his property isn't in a flood zone.

Ever since that first trouble storm in 2021, Greene says he's been in contact with the City-Parish Department of Maintenance to find a solution. The parish has confirmed there's an issue and the ditches along S. Flannery Road need to be dug out, but the work has not happened.

"I've really lost my faith in the government to be able to provide the services that our tax dollars are paying for," he said.

Greene was told the issue would be corrected in 2022 and again last month. So far, the work hasn't started. He can't afford to keep waiting.

"I don't know what to do, if I need to rent a backhoe and dig it out myself - but that's not my property," Greene said.

He's hoping it doesn't come to that.