They nearly drowned in their apartments. Now, residents of Dean Estates wonder where they'll go.

CRANSTON − As Ralph Amitrano Jr. was walking from the bathroom to his recliner in his basement apartment at Dean Estates on Sunday afternoon, water was beginning to pool around his legs. Amitrano, who uses a wheelchair and has a hard time walking, made it to his chair, but only just.

"Two seconds later, I'm upside down on the recliner," he said.

His wife, Carol Amitrano, was taking chicken fingers out of the air fryer and checking their oven when the front of their dishwasher blew off. Water streamed into the apartment. Ralph Amitrano's sister was dragged underwater by the kitchen table, now floating in the quickly filling apartment.

Within just 10 minutes from the first inkling of a flood the space was filled with water, and Ralph Amitrano was in danger of drowning in his own apartment.

Firefighters walked down the six steps into the basement apartment, wading through the water to pull Ralph Amitrano to safety on the second floor, as his head was submerged multiple times.

"He was bobbing, up and down," neighbor Wayne Walker said.

Firefighters say if flood had happened at night, people would have drowned

The Amitranos' brush with a near-death experience during the catastrophic flash flooding at the Dean Estates apartment complex in Cranston was not unique, as multiple people described nearly drowning in their own apartments on Sunday.

Fire Chief James Warren said it was lucky the flash flooding happened on a Sunday afternoon. If it happened 12 hours later, at 1 a.m., many people may have drowned in their bedrooms, with the small amount of time they had between being alerted to rising water and it being too deep to escape.

Walker said he went out for 30 minutes and when he came back, his apartment was flooded nearly to the ceiling, and covering the electric panel. Inside the flooded apartment were his two small dogs, Gizmo and Gabby.

Later on in the day, the firefighter checking his apartment to see if a rescue was possible walked out, his head hung low. Before the firefighter could say a word, Walker knew his dogs were dead and he began to cry.

Firefighters rescued two cats from the building, although another two were missing.

Building condemned as a risk

Warren ordered the apartment building condemned, as many parts of the floor on the first level are entirely missing. During a meeting with the residents on Monday night, Warren said he would let those who live on the second and third floors try to get medications or personal belongings on Tuesday and beyond, with an escort.

All 24 units in the building are unhabitable and the families now need to find new places to live, in a market where prices are up and there is little, if any, supply.

Warren said in the past, apartment complexes had agreements with each other to rehouse tenants in empty apartments. Since the pandemic, all those extra units have been rented and there is little, if any, slack left in the system.

The buildings residents lambasted the new building owners and managers at the meeting, decrying that they would allow people to live in apartments that have a history of flooding.

The apartment managers, represented by Justin Fishman, said they were cutting $500 checks to everyone in the condemned buildings and refunding their September rent and their security deposits. He suggested residents ask for a special rate from the Econo Lodge if they needed a place to stay.

Susan Rainone sold her house recently and was trying to find a place to move, but the waiting list at every apartment she could find was at least a year long. She and her son, Daniel Rainone, were elated when an apartment in Dean Estates opened up. At the time, she did not know why − the previous tenant left eight months into a year-long lease after their apartment flooded.

On Sunday, they were sitting on the couch, getting ready to watch football when water started to trickle in from the closet.

Standing in a hallway in the Cranston Police Department after the meeting, Susan Rainone opened a video she took on her phone. She recorded the flooding as it happened. In the video, the toilets began to overflow and water was streaming in from the walls. Within 12 minutes they were up to their upper chests in water, trying to escape from the apartment.

"A firefighter grabbed my arm," Susan Rainone said. "Without him, I may not have made it."

Who should pay for damages?

Since the first major flooding of the Dean Estate apartment complex in 2013, the city, the state and the former owner of the apartment complex have been involved in a lawsuit for the last decade over who should pay for damages.

Residents at the meeting described the apartments flooding over and over and over again. The last flood was so bad it made the news was in 2018.

Oaklawn Avenue is a state road, and therefore, drainage of the state road is the responsibility of the state, while Cranston is responsible for the underlying sewer system and the apartment complex has its own internal drainage.

Department of Transportation spokesman Charles St. Martin wrote in an email that DOT Director Peter Alviti "is on record as having noted that the building was built below ground level, which made it susceptible to flooding which has occurred several times since its construction."

2013 flooding: Dean Estates flash flood smashes first-floor doors, windows, sends a river of dirty water through some apartments

Asked about what the state has done in the 10 years since the apartments flooded in 2013, St. Martin had no comment.

The flooding of the apartment building was a symptom of broader storm water drainage issues that the Department of Transportation is addressing, including $140 million in upgrades over the past seven years, Martin wrote. However, that figure is no indication or=f how much, or little, work has gone into fixing the drainage problems on Oaklawn Avenue.

Flash flooding events overwhelm the drainage systems, as pipes are designed for smaller volumes than is the new normal.

"We will replace the drains as quickly as we can – it took decades of neglect to get here, it will take decades to remedy this," St. Martin wrote.

Mayor Ken Hopkins said weeks before the near-fatal flooding, he met with state leaders to talk about flooding issues in Cranston, and the city is trying to utilize federal funding to alleviate some storm water issues, including dredging the Pawtuxet River to increase its capacity and buying out houses in the floodplain.

AG opposes lawsuit over 2013 flooding being scheduled for trial

The lawsuit filed by Dean Estates, LLC, against the city and where the state has been brought in as well, could get a trial date 10 years after the flooding. The state Attorney General's Office, defending the Department of Transportation, have in court documents asked that a judge not schedule a trial because they have not interviewed all the witnesses.

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Reach Wheeler Cowperthwaite at wcowperthwaite@providencejournal.com or follow him on Twitter @WheelerReporter.

This article originally appeared on The Providence Journal: Flooding in Cranston's Dean Estates apartments leaves families homeless