Fearing that houses would begin collapsing and running on little sleep, Williamsburg firefighters sounded a statewide alarm to get help with remaining high water.
Many impacted residents have been able to start drying out their homes and businesses from Aug. 12 floods, but a week later, Williamsburg still faced unique challenges, including a lack of storm drains.
On Thursday, Aug. 20, volunteer firefighter Terry Bond wrote to Indiana Department of Homeland Security and Gov. Mike Braun’s office to ask for expedited assistance.
In the letter, Bond said local responders had been pumping water out of residents’ basements for more than four days.
Residents told WWN that Williamsburg didn’t get hit as hard with initial heavy rainfall, but later the basements started to fill up. Additional heavy rain on Aug. 19 also reversed the momentum.
“In many homes, as soon as we make progress, the water comes back up again,” he wrote. “Each additional rain sets the community back, and residents are unable to get ahead of the flooding.”
Williamsburg is a small, unincorporated community with no storm drains or centralized stormwater system.
Bond said much of the damage is not visible from the outside, which made it easy for the town to be overlooked. However, inside basements and homes, he said the situation was serious.
Williamsburg residents were dealing with continual flooding, foundations beginning to crack, and growing concern that some homes might become structurally unsafe if groundwater pressure continues, he said.
Water appeared to be coming up through drains, basement floors and the groundwater system, Bond said, not only from surface flooding.
Williamsburg sits on a high water table and a glacial buried valley aquifer system, which might contribute to the ongoing water intrusion, he wrote.
Bond said the issue went beyond cleanup help and required urgent technical assessment and emergency management support.
He requested IDHS help coordinate or advise on emergency management, structural and engineering assessments, groundwater assessments, guidance on disaster assistance and funding, coordination with other local emergency officials, and support with private well testing.
In addition, Williamsburg Fire Chief Josh Smith posted a message through Indiana Volunteer Firefighters Association on Aug. 20 asking for additional departments to supply tanker pumps or vac trucks.
More than a dozen departments assisted throughout the week, and Smith’s Facebook post recruited additional volunteers. A team came in from Noble County in northeast Indiana and helped make some progress Thursday evening.
In an online meeting that day with Indiana Department of Natural Resources Water Division and a hydrologist, Smith was advised that, if they allowed nature to take its course, it could be another seven days before the situation would even begin to subside.
However, on Sunday, Aug. 23, Smith said they were able to get the pumping done five days earlier than the seven-day estimate. He thanked area departments and food and caffeine providers for their help during the 24/7 operation for six straight days. On Saturday, he said they’d made significant progress in moving more than 10 million gallons to date.
“Our goal has never been to completely stop the water,” Smith said. “Our goal has been to make the situation more manageable for our residents and prevent additional damage and property loss. At this point, we have won this fight, but the recovery challenges facing Williamsburg will remain for quite some time.”
Besides home damages and exhausted volunteers, Smith said Williamsburg Fire Department faces equipment replacement. Countless trash pumps broke down, two of its vehicles were towed out of town Friday, and a third vehicle needs major repairs.
During a special meeting Aug. 21, Wayne County’s commissioners discussed applying to the Indiana Office of Community and Rural Affairs for a planning grant to study and engineer solutions to Williamsburg’s stormwater problem.
Church, volunteers step up
Williamsburg Church of the Nazarene is serving meals and accepting donations of items despite the church and parsonage having water in their basement too.
“It’s wonderful how the county and places like A. Morgan Construction, Reid Health and other places have helped, you never would have thought coming to this little ‘burg,” said Marilyn Nichols. “It’s been wonderful.”
Northeastern alumni and other groups are assisting and Mark Sutton, a retired Richmond police officer, is helping oversee the relief effort.
Joshua Smith and Mike Emery contributed to this article.
A version of this article will appear in the August 26 2026 print edition of the Western Wayne News.
