Nine days after record rain swallowed Western Wayne County, Milton’s Nicole Robinson still had water flowing through her basement. Her home’s sump pump quit working sometime on Aug. 12, letting in 4 ½ feet of water. It took days and two sump pumps to remove most of it. And even with a new one installed, water remained.
“It’s just a waiting game for the water to quit running so that we can have our floor inspected, because it didn’t just leak in the walls,” said Robinson. Water pushed and bubbled up from under the floor like “little geysers.”
She lost her appliances — a deep freezer and water heater — and awaits a furnace inspection, though she isn’t stressed as it isn’t wintertime.
Robinson encountered all this hours after confronting the waters first-hand as a first responder. The three-year member of Milton’s Volunteer Fire Department was on the scene that fateful Wednesday morning. She recalls rain filling her yard Tuesday night, but it wasn’t until she awoke to mutual aid pager tones the next morning that she realized the severity of the situation.
“Mutual aid is when another area that’s not your designated area calls for your help,” she said. The calls were for traffic hazards in Cambridge City, meaning water was in the streets and they had to help block roads. But before she could get to her car, tones signaled flooding in Milton. With her car flooded in, an assistant chief picked her up and they blocked Indiana 1, diverting people back to Connersville and Cambridge City. Once the water lowered enough to reopen the road, the rescue calls began. She assisted two drivers on Wagner Road before all units were assigned to an overwhelmed Cambridge City.
Robinson said on a typical day, units are assigned a specific address. But they quit assigning units as they were getting two to three calls at a time.
“They were just like ‘We have a water rescue at this address, this address … can the closest unit go?’ And everybody’s like, ‘Who’s the closest unit?’”
After two hours in Cambridge City and texts from her daughter about water in their home, Robinson was set to return to Milton when a colleague asked her to transport his family to safety. Once inside her truck, it took them 45 minutes to find a safe route from Cambridge City back to SR 1.
“I ended up having to go north through the country. I took Brick Church, and every road I would turn on to get back out to one would just be flooded.”
Once in Milton at Boyd Road, Robinson and a fellow driver parked as water rushed across SR 1.
“I’m just staring at it, because my kids are on the other side of this water. And I knew there was no way around. And as a mom, that’s the hardest thing in the world. You know, there’s this deadly thing between you and your kids,” Robinson said.
After some contemplation, she and the other driver went for it, her driving tightly behind his country truck as he made a pathway through the waters. After transporting her passengers, she immediately blocked SR 1.
“From there it was just a lot of keeping people from crossing the road and still going out,” said Robinson.
Water surrounded Milton with one open route south toward Connersville. Soon, she had to turn down calls and refer people to other units.
“As a first responder, that ‘s one of the hardest things to do. You sign up for that. That’s your job. It’s your expectation to be there for people. And when you’re physically unable to do that, it’s heartbreaking.”
That weekend, Robinson took off from her full-time job in Indianapolis to survey the damage. She said her selfish side wanted to cry, but she looked around, grateful for the little she lost compared to her neighbors.
“I count my blessings on that, you know. My house is still standing. My kids are still here. None of my family got hurt,” she said. She assisted with door-to-door inspections and continues helping in Milton, which she described as a “grandma community.”
“They very much live in the way that my grandfather would have lived and that’s ‘I’ll do it myself,’” said Robinson. She’s checked on others, connecting them with resources. When not in Milton, she turns her efforts to Cambridge City, where she belongs to the American Legion and has a friend who lost their home. Later, she traveled to New Castle to help her mom with a flooded storage unit, and she still has friends in her native Fayette County dealing with the same things.
“It’s just so widespread throughout the state. It’s sad,” said Robinson.
Back to work on Aug. 22, Robinson said she’s finding balance between helping people and taking personal time to rest. She realized she had taken things for granted, and she still hadn’t cried yet.
“I’m a female, we’re supposed to cry sometimes,” she said, “but I’ll get to it eventually, I suppose. It’ll catch up one day.”
A version of this article appeared in the August 26 2026 print edition of the Western Wayne News.
