RACINE - The city had about 7.8 million gallons of sewer system overflow during the weekend, according to unofficial preliminary results.

"We didn't come out as bad as a lot of other communities have," said Mike Gitter, chief of operations for Racine Water and Wastewater Utilities.

The problems were mainly confined to the north side of the city around the flooded Root River, he said, with no problems on the south side.

"It's a mixture of rain and sewage," Gitter said, "predominantly rain."

The flow peaked early Monday morning, but two sites were still losing flow late Monday afternoon - one on Ontario Street and one at Luedtke Court, "right in the middle of the mess," Gitter said.

The wastewater utility has not experienced any problems, he said.

Although there are contaminants in Lake Michigan because of overflows, Gitter said the membrane filtering system installed at the treatment plant on Michigan Boulevard in 2005 would take care of them.

"The drinking water should be fine," Gitter said.

Sewage is seeping into basements because of the flooding. "Absolutely you don't want to come in contact with it," Gitter said.

If a home has standing water, the first priority should be to turn off electricity to the flooded area, said Keith Hendricks, environmental health specialist with the City of Racine Department of Health. There is a high likelihood that there is sewage in the water coming into homes, he said, so contact with the water should be avoided.

"The biggest problem right now is getting rid of the water," Hendricks said. "There's really not much you can do until that water is gone."

Keith Haas, general manager of Racine Water and Wastewater Utilities, said in an e-mail that residents should reconnect their sump pumps to their yards to remove water from the sewer systems. Homes built after 1960 have sump pumps that are supposed to discharge into yards to prevent water pressure from building up around their basement walls.

"Because of the climate that we live in, some homeowners get tired of dealing with icy driveways, sidewalks and streets, and choose to illegally discharge these sump pumps into wash basins or drains in their basements," Haas said. "This practice causes additional stress and burden on the sanitary sewer system in all of the communities."

People who want more information on how to handle flooding can pick up pamphlets at the Environmental Health Division of the Racine Health Department, Room 1, City Hall, 730 Washington Ave. Information is also available on the City of Racine's home page, http://www.cityofracine.org.