SCOTT DEPOT, WV (WOWK) – Over the weekend, the West Virginia Division of Highways (DOH) went to a property that the homeowners say was destroyed due to heavy flooding.

Homeowners, Eric and Stacy Ritchie say their home floods every time it rains due to a faulty drainage system put in by the Division of Highways.

Douglas Kirk, the Deputy State Highway Engineer for WVDOH, says the issue does not stem from Ritchie’s home and that they’re just receiving the effects.

Kirk says the drainage system – previously installed by them in the neighbor’s yard – is not taking in enough water because someone else installed a pipe underneath the system.

That pipe is blocking most of the water from being able to go inside the drain and causing water to travel over the road and into Ritchie’s home and yard.

He says there should also be a ditch near the road of their neighbor’s home catching water that hasn’t been kept up.  

“A ditch on the upstream side needs to be restored so flow can come to the pipe that goes on the road and a channel should be cut in front of the Ritchie’s house probably between their driveway and the road in order to divert any water flow that goes on the road away from their house,” Kirk said.

The Ritchie’s say it is unfair that the DOH’s issues are costing them.

“I don’t know what we’re supposed to do out here, but I just want them to do their part and fix it,” Stacy Ritchie said. “They have thousands and thousands of dollars, we don’t. that’s not my property and that’s not my drain. We have put so many drains around here.”

Fixing these issues should only take a few months, according to highway officials. They say they are working to get a solution here for the Ritchie household as soon as possible.