Shelter, a Basic Human Need; the Flood of 2005.
Gerry Germain wrote about the 55th anniversary of the big flood; we also have a 5th anniversary this year, the anniversary of the flood of 2005.It had rained the previous six days when our area received another 4 to 6 inches of rain. It happened five years ago today.. and it did not have to happen. The flooding of the houses on the south side of Hamilton Reservoir was foreseeable and preventable.
The flood of 1955 took out the causeway. Subsequently the causeway was reconstructed. Unfortunately, town officials did not think much and built not only a passage way for traffic, they also built inadvertently a second dam.
The new causeway was constructed with only a culvert with a 6’ diameter.
The 6’ culvert is not large enough to handle heavy rain.
The following historic photograph shows the causeway before it was washed away during the flood of 1955. The opening appears to have been much higher and allowed for more water to pass.
Back on October 14, 2005, the water was dammed by the causeway until around 23:00 hours when the water reached the top of the causeway and rushed down on the north side of the causeway.
The water rushing over the causeway washed out the north side of the road. In the morning of October 15, up to 5’ of the causeway was washed away in some spots.
About 21 homes on the south side of Hamilton Reservoir were flooded, some in Union Connecticut. At least one car were also submerged up to the roof.
Please note the submerged car in the right middle of the picture parked underneath a tree!
The last time my house was surrounded by water before that day was back in April of 1986. At that time, town officials talked about solving the problem with the potential flooding after heavy rain due to the causeway damming the water.
Nothing ever happened.
With increasingly extreme weather as a result of global warming, it is only a matter of time to have low laying houses flooded again.
What many don’t realize is that much less than the 4 to 6 inches of water are needed to flood the 21 homes on the south side of the causeway. Back on October 14/15 the water level reached its peak around 23:00 hours but it kept on raining through the night and the level at the dam reached its highest mark around 5:30 hours in the morning of October 15. All the additional water that washed out part of the causeway would not be needed to flood the approximately 21 homes again.
The basic needs of humans are food, shelter, and clothing. True leadership ensures every member of a community these basic needs. There is nothing worse than being hungry or live in a house that was, and is in constant danger of being flooded again.
(My house was built in 1938, 17 years before the causeway with only one culvert was built).
As most of the readers know by now, the selectboard under Earl Johnson spent more than $100,000 in an attempt to deny me my rights to divide my peninsula into three building lots and failed, while fraudulently conveying a 12 acre parcel of town owned land to his family; the selectboard under James Wettlaufer spent hundreds of thousands of dollars in an attempt to prove that LaMountain is not a farmer and failed also. The town is in the process of borrowing $172,525 for a new dump truck to replace a dump truck that is only 14 years old and has only 60,000 miles.
How much would it cost to dig a trench and install a second culvert to ensure one of the most basic needs, the need for safe shelter, for all the members of this community?
October 15, 2010, Peter Frei
Read also:
Brian Johnson is wasting at least $100,000 the town does not have and needs to borrow.Holland Selectman Earl Johnson and Family Profit from Illegal Land Use
Planning Board of Holland denied resident right to divide his property.
James P. LaMountain exonerated again, this time by Justice Moriarty II.