The smelly, brown floodwater that filled basements and soaked walls and floorboards was bad enough.

But what perplexed the residents in some waterlogged West Toledo neighborhoods last week indeed, infuriated a few is that Toledoans have been paying for new multimillion-dollar storm sewers for more than five years.

So why hours after Mother Nature slammed the area with 5 inches or more of rain on Wednesday and into Thursday was James McLean s family having to slog out his belongings from what had become a basement swamp?

We ve been here since 1947 and never had this, said Mr. McLean, 89, standing outside his home, where several feet of water swirled downstairs. We got through the tornado [in 1965] with just a bit of water.

City officials say the heavy water damage from last week s severe storms means they will now have to review portions of the city s multimillion-dollar storm-water utility project to see whether critical changes need to be made.

Among the questions for city officials: Should they tweak plans to improve Shantee Creek, which backed up and flowed into West Toledo basements last week? Did a retention pond at Bowman Park near Jackman and Laskey roads work as it should have? And do plans need to be reworked on South Toledo ditches?

Rob Ludeman, now president of City Council, was part of the task force that worked out the details of financing the city s storm-water sewers overhaul. He was also on council in 1999 when it voted to place the monthly charge on residents water bills.

Mr. Ludeman said he was stunned at how much damage the storm did last week. Water pooled in living rooms of residences along South Toledo s Longwood and Florita drives, he said.

We re going to have our folks address these issues, Mr. Ludeman said. We obviously have more work to do.

Still, he and other officials agree on this: For as bad as the flooding was in some Toledo neighborhoods last week, it would have been worse had it not been for the $19 million in improvements that the city has made in the past five years to its decades-old storm-sewer system.

The unrelenting deluge would have overwhelmed even the best system, said Don Moline, assistant chief of staff and former public utilities director.

We think we had a 150-year-plus storm, he said.

Having just finished another news conference discussing residents clean-up, Mr. Moline and Bob Stevenson, current utilities director, looked over drainage maps with Mayor Carty Finkbeiner. The storm, Mr. Stevenson said, was off the chart.

The $19 million spent so far in the city s storm-water improvement project includes both capital projects and manpower costs associated with planning and maintaining the new system, said Bruce Gyde, city utilities manager.

In addition to assessments charged to homeowners, commercial and other large property owners pay a heftier monthly bill to support the storm-water sewer overhaul.

Their bills are calculated on the area of their impervious surface parking lots, roofs, sidewalks, and other areas that rainwater runs off from because the earth has been paved over or built on.

All those bills have meant that Toledo s ditches have been cleaned, deepened, widened, and, in some cases, enclosed.

Crews have rebuilt a pumping station at Detroit and Dura avenues in North Toledo, and a new outflow sewer helps drain Secor Gardens at a cost of $465,000.

About $325,000 has been spent to assist the U.S. Geological Survey as it reworks flood plain maps for the city. Because ditch and drain improvements may move some residents out of flood plains, they might be able to drop costly flood insurance, Mr. Gyde said.

The most costly portion of the storm-water system s overhaul was in West Toledo just west of last week s flooding. About $9.2 million in improvements was poured into Eisenbraum and Tifft ditches and into Shantee Creek, improving the storm-water drainage in areas west of Lewis Avenue.

To Joe Kusz, that s the problem. He lives on the east side of Lewis.

All those improvements to the west mean that water has been more efficiently collected and removed from those neighborhoods and dumped on his, he said.

His irritation was obvious last week as he watched a tow truck make its way through several inches of water that still stood in the middle of the Burnham and Poinsetta Avenue intersection.

They make promises: blah, blah, blah, he said.

Around the corner, Jorge and Lisa O Henry watched helplessly as water that filled a large hole in their backyard recently dug for the foundation of a new addition leached out the earth under their driveway.

As they stood there, pieces of driveway cement cracked, broke off, and crashed into the several feet of water below.

It s ridiculous, Mrs. O Henry said.

Mr. Ludeman echoed their concerns.

Last week, the council president toured the South Toledo neighborhoods-turned-swamps. Nearby, crews have already spent nearly $200,000 on improvements to Haefner ditch, according to the city.

I ll be honest with you, I remember questioning when we did work on Haefner ditch. I remember questioning at the time, What about areas east of that? Mr. Ludeman said.

With the rain last week, he said, that s where the flooding occurred: just east of where the work stopped.

Essentially, Toledo s storm-water plans have engineers and construction crews working to pool sudden surges of rainwater across the entire city to prevent flooding. The water is then choked so it can be gently released into neighborhood ditches and drains.

Bowman Park should work as such a chokepoint. Even if the retention pond there overflows, planners believe the park s open grassy areas should absorb flooding as a giant retention pool.

One of the things that s going to be checked now is whether Bowman worked the way we think it should have, Mr. Moline said. Because if it wasn t choking off that flow, [the storm waters] could have slammed into that neighborhood.

Mr. Stevenson said it is a coincidence that Shantee Creek is the next phase of improvements. The project will most likely be under way by fall, he said.

For residents of Toledo neighborhoods still trying to dry out their homes, that doesn t help replace valuables they lost during last week s storm. Several foundation walls also buckled under the pressure of the rushing waters.

Some residents may qualify for disaster assistance funds, and Mr. Finkbeiner has vowed to help too.

Along Crawford Avenue, Mr. McLean s wife, Ruth, was optimistic, even though flooding undoubtedly ruined a new electric wheelchair in her basement as well as pictures, furniture, and other personal belongings.

We ve never had water like this. I mean, my God, said the 84-year-old great-grandmother. But it ll be OK. I ve been here a long time, and I ve learned God will take care of us.

Contact Robin Erb at: robinerb@theblade.com or 419-724-6133.

First Published June 25, 2006, 4:00 p.m.