ROTTERDAM JUNCTION — The old Erie Canal once carried prosperity through Rotterdam Junction.

But today, residents living by the relic of New York’s canal history fear the stagnant basin could one day wash away their property along Isabella Street and Scrafford Lane. Heavy downpours on Wednesday and Thursday caused a 500-foot stretch of the canal near historic Lock 25 to cascade over the old towpath and into their yards.

As a result, many of the houses ended up with flooded basements and pools of stagnant muddy water covering their lawns. Even worse was the damage the flooding did to the towpath, which is the only berm preventing the canal waters from draining onto their properties.

“This is a major concern if we have another flash flood,” said Dave Orologio while inspecting the berm Friday. “If that goes, we’re going to have all that water coming in here.”

With the added rainwater and nowhere to drain, the canal water rose over the berm and inundated Orologio’s vegetable garden, garage and basement. Next door, David Hladik and Keri Pratico’s house was damaged by the nearly waist-deep water that filled their backyard.

Hladik was at work when Pratico needed to save their cat, stranded on a wood pallet. Pratico said the water was rushing in so fast that she could barely get through it.

“It was like I was trying to walk through a brick wall of water,” she said.

Residents of the neighborhood contend the flooding problem could have been avoided had there been a working culvert beneath Pan Am Railways’ freight yard by Scrafford Lane. With a culvert, Hladik said, water collecting in the old canal would have flowed toward a wider stretch of the basin along the Mohawk Hudson Bike-Hike Trail, which is outfitted with concrete drains that empty into a wooded area far from their homes.

“This wouldn’t be here now, “ he said.

Yet nobody seems to know who is responsible for maintaining the culvert. Orologio said he’s had no luck asking Pan Am — the Massachusetts-based company formerly known as Guilford Rail System — or the town of Rotterdam.

“You’d think at least one person would have a map and know what the hell was going on there,” he said.

Calls placed to Pan Am President David Fink were not returned Friday.

HISTORY OF TROUBLE

Rotterdam Town Historian Dick Whalen, who lives in Rotterdam Junction, said the old canal has often posed problems for nearby residences. During the 1930s, he said, one resident used to alleviate flooding near Lock 25 by using dynamite charges to blast holes through a section of the towpath where the bike-hike trail now runs.

Whalen also recalled his father dumping a truckload of rock by the towpath adjacent to the old lock in order to reinforce the berm. But he wasn’t sure who was responsible for clearing out the culvert.

“Nobody seems to know who owns that,” he said.

Schenectady County was recently negotiating with Rotterdam Septic to buy the old Lock 25 property as part of a six-mile expansion of the bike-hike trail. Plans for the extension were put on hold this summer after state funding for the project was instead devoted to fixing the barge canal.

Rotterdam Septic owner Larry Ross Jr. said Pan Am now owns an easement in the area where the culvert exists. He said flooding over the old towpath has been a problem over the years.

“It’s been an issue off and on for as long as I can remember,” he said.

Pan Am was contending with flooding issues of its own Friday. Runoff from a small creek near the historic lock undermined the tracks, causing a boxcar to derail.

Crews from the company were on hand attempting to dredge an area running beneath a small rail bridge a short distance away from Iroquois Lane. Workers were also trying to shore up segments of the track undermined by the flood.

A foreman at the site declined to comment.

Elsewhere in the area, state Department of Transportation crews continued to work on Route 160 into the evening and late Friday it was reopened.

DOT spokesman Peter Van Keuren said the sheer volume of runoff caused the road culverts to load up with debris. He said the damage was unavoidable.

“It was just a case of a large amount of water in a short period of time.”

Flood waters also prompted the indefinite closure of Muselbeck Road. Most other county roads were restored to service Friday, said Engineering Director G. Latimer Schmidt.

“We’ve got most of the roads open,” he said.