Rolling back rugs and brushing away mud after it rains has become routine for William and Gloria Strong, who have lived on Roseland Drive since 1972.

The two have made several calls to the city to get answers, they said, but their property continues to serve as a drain for the entire street.

&#8220There’s not much we can do,” said the city’s public works director, James &#8220Bubba” Rainer, who said he hears from William Strong every time it pours. &#8220When we have a heavy rain, he gets water.”

Water flows into the Strong yard from the intersecting Halls Ferry Road and Windham Road, which backs up to their property, leaving soaked piles of leaves and grass. Water sometimes enters the Strongs’ garage.

Monday’s all-day downpour, which brought more than 6 inches of rain to the area, sent a surge of water into the couple’s driveway and yard.

&#8220It’s been happening off and on for a long time,” said Gloria Strong. &#8220They put that black top on the road. Now the road is tall and the drain won’t hold it. They say they don’t have a machine that can get that black top off.”

Rainer said, &#8220We’ve done things in the past, but that’s a drainage area through there.”

Last week, city workers built up the curb across the street to provide a barrier for water. But, it’s not helping, the Strongs say.

&#8220I think it makes more of it,” Gloria Strong said. Water &#8220jumps right across the curb, and comes down our yard.”

William Strong said the two drain basins across the street do nothing more than send water under the street to the two basins on his side, causing a spillover into the road and his yard.

Another problem is a 24-inch cement culvert, which stretches about 100 feet from the street, along Strong’s property line through the land behind him, ending at a line of overgrown brush, fallen trees and a tiny, natural creek, into which the culvert drains.

&#8220It backs that water up to where it can’t move,” he said.

The cement drainage ditch has cracks and missing pieces where trees have pushed it over time. In some of those cracks, weeds pop through and leaves crowd the width of most of it.

&#8220We need a pipe twice that size,” William Strong said. &#8220If we had a bigger culvert here, it wouldn’t be such a problem.”

He believes there’s something that can be done. &#8220This is common sense stuff. It’s a real problem for the citizens.”

Rainer said the storm drain is on the city’s regular maintenance schedule.

&#8220It’s not a problem unless it rains,” he said. &#8220We’ve done everything we can do.”