Come and listen to my story about a man named Gary, his hill started caving and it was gettin kind of scary, then one day it started getting hotter, but up through the ground came a bubblin water – H2O that is, wet stuff…………
Ok, I know it sounds like I am poking fun at my friend and neighbor, but trust me when I say that I am not. Gary and Tracy Edwards live in our neighborhood (Jasmine Hill Estates) and recently their property had undergone a phenomenon that no one could have seen. One night as every slept peacefully and soundly, the hill beside their house turned loose. It was true to life mudslide that was moving right towards their house. Only, it wasn’t something that was just running wild. It moved ever so slowly, creeping towards the house breaking the driveway along the way. The sad part is that this quite possibly could have been stopped before it ever happened. Before I go on though, let me give the disclaimer that I am not an engineer, but living in the hills of Wetumpka or even Tennessee, you do have to educate yourself about water and its movements. In MOST cases, it’s not hard to learn that you must give water a place to go.
Rewind to about two years prior to this hillside giving up and caving in. There was a problem with the roadway directly across from this hill and where it started moving. The roadway was sinking and water was bubbling up and seeping from cracks in and around the sinking spot. There was some work done where they dug down, compacted some stuff, filled it in and patched the road. Done? I think not.
A few months later, the water showed up again seeping out from the edges of the patch. In addition the road has continued to sink ever since as water began to migrate towards the hillside. It’s my theory (or self educated guess) that this is due to two reasons. One, the water was diverted in that direction by the roadwork. (I will say though that it was certainly not intentional). The second factor to all of this as I see is that the roadway and hill have reached critical mass in terms of how much water they can hold. Take a dry sponge, lay it in the sink. Slowly pour water over it and you will see that it will absorb a lot. However, at some point it will begin to seep. Amazingly, just like this hillside has done.
I’m concerned for the safety of my family and just as importantly the safety of Gary’s family as well as all of the families that live here in regards to that roadway being compromised. As the Assistant Fire Chief of Wetumpka, we have a responsibility to provide a service to the people that live here. Should this road give way to the pressures of the water stored in it, providing fire protection will become an impossible task. Yet when we met with all of those concerned last week, we were told that the road would not be affected because it still had 10-12 feet of hillside. Well, that was a week ago, and now the cave in has moved to within inches of the road instead of yards. The rain keeps coming, it keeps finding its way under the road and into the hillside, and dirt keeps being removed as it moves along. Oh, and as I understand it, there is more rain on the way for Tuesday.
NOW is the time for the County Commissioner, the County Engineer, the County Lawyer, and the County Road Crews to move on this. The road is/will be affected more and real soon. The argument in the beginning is that this problem didn’t start on the right-of-way and I beg to differ because I think it started under the road two years ago. I’m certain the County is trying to stay away from pointing out that this may have started on their side because they don’t want to spend the money to fix the Edwards property. What happed was the problem showed itself off the right-of-way, yet started someplace else. All of that can be argued later; in the meantime the hill needs to be shored up NOW before the safety of lives and property are put into peril. Is the County working on the problem? Sure, but it’s not enough. They are in a race with Mother Nature, and they are still in the starting gates. There are a lot of temporary ideas that can be done starting tomorrow. It’s time that this issue become as important to the Commission as it has to us.
Ok, I know it sounds like I am poking fun at my friend and neighbor, but trust me when I say that I am not. Gary and Tracy Edwards live in our neighborhood (Jasmine Hill Estates) and recently their property had undergone a phenomenon that no one could have seen. One night as every slept peacefully and soundly, the hill beside their house turned loose. It was true to life mudslide that was moving right towards their house. Only, it wasn’t something that was just running wild. It moved ever so slowly, creeping towards the house breaking the driveway along the way. The sad part is that this quite possibly could have been stopped before it ever happened. Before I go on though, let me give the disclaimer that I am not an engineer, but living in the hills of Wetumpka or even Tennessee, you do have to educate yourself about water and its movements. In MOST cases, it’s not hard to learn that you must give water a place to go.
Rewind to about two years prior to this hillside giving up and caving in. There was a problem with the roadway directly across from this hill and where it started moving. The roadway was sinking and water was bubbling up and seeping from cracks in and around the sinking spot. There was some work done where they dug down, compacted some stuff, filled it in and patched the road. Done? I think not.
A few months later, the water showed up again seeping out from the edges of the patch. In addition the road has continued to sink ever since as water began to migrate towards the hillside. It’s my theory (or self educated guess) that this is due to two reasons. One, the water was diverted in that direction by the roadwork. (I will say though that it was certainly not intentional). The second factor to all of this as I see is that the roadway and hill have reached critical mass in terms of how much water they can hold. Take a dry sponge, lay it in the sink. Slowly pour water over it and you will see that it will absorb a lot. However, at some point it will begin to seep. Amazingly, just like this hillside has done.
I’m concerned for the safety of my family and just as importantly the safety of Gary’s family as well as all of the families that live here in regards to that roadway being compromised. As the Assistant Fire Chief of Wetumpka, we have a responsibility to provide a service to the people that live here. Should this road give way to the pressures of the water stored in it, providing fire protection will become an impossible task. Yet when we met with all of those concerned last week, we were told that the road would not be affected because it still had 10-12 feet of hillside. Well, that was a week ago, and now the cave in has moved to within inches of the road instead of yards. The rain keeps coming, it keeps finding its way under the road and into the hillside, and dirt keeps being removed as it moves along. Oh, and as I understand it, there is more rain on the way for Tuesday.
NOW is the time for the County Commissioner, the County Engineer, the County Lawyer, and the County Road Crews to move on this. The road is/will be affected more and real soon. The argument in the beginning is that this problem didn’t start on the right-of-way and I beg to differ because I think it started under the road two years ago. I’m certain the County is trying to stay away from pointing out that this may have started on their side because they don’t want to spend the money to fix the Edwards property. What happed was the problem showed itself off the right-of-way, yet started someplace else. All of that can be argued later; in the meantime the hill needs to be shored up NOW before the safety of lives and property are put into peril. Is the County working on the problem? Sure, but it’s not enough. They are in a race with Mother Nature, and they are still in the starting gates. There are a lot of temporary ideas that can be done starting tomorrow. It’s time that this issue become as important to the Commission as it has to us.
No comments:
Post a Comment