Blue stockings hang from the chimney. A pretty Christmas tree sits in the corner of the darkened living room. But no one, save for the cat, is home.
Robert Streit and his family live one block from Ponce de Leon Drive, the pristine Fort Lauderdale street that’s been soiled by stinky sewage for days after a main sewer line ruptured on Dec. 10. Millions of gallons of poop, thanks to tens of thousands of toilets flushing in Wilton Manors, Oakland Park and northern Fort Lauderdale, make it all the way to Ponce de Leon, now dubbed Poop de Leon by weary residents forced to deal with the stench.
Streit, a lawyer who lives with his wife and three small kids, tried lighting the fireplace in the first few days to see if that might clear the air. It didn’t work, he says, so they spent most of their time upstairs, where the air was less foul.
Streit’s home backs up to the Tarpon River, where pumps have been spewing raw sewage for days to keep it from flooding into the homes along Ponce de Leon.
Work crews were forced to wait for parts that needed to be fabricated in Texas then transported to South Florida. The parts arrived Sunday, and repairs won’t be finished until at least Wednesday.
The strong stench of fermented sewage has permeated Streit’s home.
“It’s worse in the house than outside. I don’t know why or how,” Streit said Monday, seven days after a massive sewage spill turned the Rio Vista neighborhood into a sludge-filled construction zone.
Streit, 40, was getting headaches from the smell. Then his three children — 6-year-old Luke and 3-year-old twins Leah and Hayden — began complaining of tummy aches.
He and wife Alison packed up the family and moved to a hotel.
Streit returned Monday to check on the house and the cat, an orange tabby named Moxley.
“I catch whiffs of it even when I’m not home,” he said. “My cars smell. I don’t know if it’s on my clothes.”
Relatives are flying in next week from New Jersey for the holidays, he said.
“Hopefully we won’t have to have someone out to test the quality of the air in my home,” he said.
Streit has filed a report with his insurance company and the city but says so far no one has come out.
“I think they’re more worried about that street over there than us,” he said, peering over at Ponce de Leon.
Strawn French and his wife have been burning scented candles “like crazy” to mask the smell.
Their home on Ponce de Leon Drive sits between the two sets of pipes spewing thousands of gallons of raw sewage into the river by the minute.
“I’m right in between it all,” French, a pilot with American Airlines, said in a matter-of-fact tone. “The whole river stinks.”
French and his wife, Beth, have been steering clear of the backyard, where the smell is the worst.
They can’t drive over the large sewer pipes now lining the streets surrounding their home, so they left a car parked a couple blocks away so they can come and go.
“We’ve gone out a lot,” Beth French said. “Trying to carry groceries a block and a half is a pain.”
On Monday afternoon, she was heading out town with friends. With all the trucks and sewer lines blocking the streets to her house, she was forced to walk a few blocks lugging her suitcase behind her.
“My friends are picking me up at the park,” she said, smiling at the prospect of leaving all the mess behind.
Down the street, Jarad Gonzalez marveled at the impact the sewage spill has had on the once bustling neighborhood.
“All day we’d see kids in strollers,” he said outside the home he shares with his husband and 1-year-old son. “I’d take my son twice a day to the park.”
Now, he says he’s not sure he’ll ever take him there again. “I don’t want him playing there if it’s dirty,” he said.
A week ago, Gonzalez noticed what he thought was water flooding through the street when he left for work.
“I thought it was going to be a little leak,” he said. “I had no clue what I was driving through. Then you notice the smell.”
When he tried to get home later that day, the streets were blocked.
“I couldn’t get to my house,” he said. “I had to park down the street and walk with groceries to my neighbor’s house, then walk across their seawall to get to my yard.”
Like other families, he’s not planning to be home for the holidays.
“Who would want to look out on this Christmas morning?” Gonzalez said.
Susannah Bryan can be reached at sbryan@sunsentinel.com or 954-356-4554
