Column: Stormwater runoff hits neighbors — again
Krista Conner (left) and Melissa Miller near a stormwater retention pond they they blame for flooding troubles down at their homes on Narrows Lane in the Southern Hills area. The pond is owned by Rockydale Quarries. Its president, Ken Randolph, said the pond is not the source of their stormwater flooding issues. Photo by Kyle Green | The Roanoke Times
You’ll have to forgive Melissa Miller if she sounds aggravated these days.
When heavy rains hit at the end of January, floodwaters filled the disabled grandmother’s yard and rose almost up to the bottom sash of her bathroom window. It was the umpteenth time in the 46 years she’s lived in her home that this has happened.
Miller and her 5-year-old grandson, Daymien[cq], spent that night with a friend in Vinton. They fled right after she called 911 and begged operators to have the fire department shut off electricity to her house, so it wouldn’t burn up from a short.
Once she returned, she found out a firefighter had reported her for hoarding, because she had piles of family possessions in her yard and house. Flurries of desperate and angry phone calls to Roanoke City Hall elicited only more vague and unsatisfying promises. Miller has heard them before.
Meanwhile, the green mold grows higher and higher on the siding of her ramshackle bungalow. Now, it’s up to her electric meter. Next door, it looks dangerous to walk in neighbor Krista Conner’s yard. The ground is dotted with mini sinkholes, most likely from a collapsing drainage system installed there decades ago.
Conner took more than a foot of water in her finished basement during the last storm. You can see the high-water mark on its paneled walls. The dried mud is everywhere and so is a dank stench.
They are No. 21 on the city of Roanoke’s prioritized list of 200 stormwater projects. And what they’ve been told amounts to “don’t hold your breath” waiting for a fix.
“They say it could take one year, they say it might be another 15 years before I’m first on this list,” Miller told me angrily. “It’s taken Roanoke City 30 years to do nothing.”
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February 19, 2013 - 6:00 AM
If the flooding was indeed caused by the Rockydale retention pond, then the City would have no problem ordering them to remedy the situation. I think that speaks for itself.
Good article, Dan! I live on Narrows Ln, and while I feel bad for my soggy neighbors, their 2 houses have been getting flooded way before Rockydale built the retaining pond a couple years back. In the 15 years we’ve been there, it seems like the Miller house has taken on water 4-5 times. It’s located on the low end of a little valley and the culvert/ditch is a mere 8-10 feet from their front window.
When the ditch overflows during a heavy rain, the water makes a B-line towards their house. The ditch was deepened a couple years ago which has helped a little, but the only permanent solution would be a massive sewer/drainage project that would tear up the entire neighborhood and cost the city big $$. It would be much cheaper and prudent to buy out the Millers, or put their house up on a concrete/block foundation. Heck, build them a new house while they’re at it for all their troubles.
My main point is, the flooding has been going on long before Rockydale built their retention pond, so it would be wrong to blame them.
Paddy,
The job is estimated at about $200k. I have no doubt that you’re right that both houses could be purchased for much less than that total.
It doesn’t look like mold remediation efforts would do much good there. The city would be better off spending the drainwater rehab money buying the homeowners out.
Kristen | February 19, 2013 at 11:12 am
It doesn’t look like mold remediation efforts would do much good there. The city would be better off spending the drainwater rehab money buying the homeowners out
Depends. If the city is going to have to come back and do the storm water remediation project at a future date due to other effects on the watershed, then it would be more efficient to go ahead and do it now.