Bernice Marshall

Precipitation Anxiety

“It’s scary anytime a storm is coming. I’ve been here for 45 years. Listen for the dryer — uh oh, the water got too high. To live that way — and pay taxes and live that way — I can’t be at peace when I see a storm. I’ve lost everything in my basement two times.”

Meet Bernice. Bernice Marshall is a Green Bay Packers fan, proud family matriarch, and with her husband a 45-year homeowner in Milwaukee’s Grasslyn Manor neighborhood — which she affectionately compares to Mayberry, USA.

It’s a neighborhood where everyone knows everybody’s business and neighbors look out for each other.

It’s also a neighborhood beset by chronic basement flooding.

After multiple times bleaching her basement after flooding, “I own stock in Clorox,” she jokes.