Wow. That's terribly sad. Stay safe.

We're just outside of Pittsburgh, PA.

So sorry. I hope the weather improves soon.

Please feel free to mock me and call me horrible names but. . .

Seriously people, has it never rained before? It amazes me every time these storms roll through and people get stuck on washed out roads. Morons, don't drive on the road covered in water! Don't be surprised when you get stuck. Don't be surprised when the fire dept. sends you a bill for the rescue (which they absolutely should!)

And the storm drain pictures, I would bet you $100 that the city or county or whatever municipality is in charge hasn't performed any maintenance on the thing in 10 years. It was probably plugged with dirt, rocks, roots and bushes.

We've been having some issues around our town lately as well, most of those majorly affected are living in newly developed areas that have been prone to flooding for hundreds of years. But some developer decided that would be the perfect spot for your dream home, and besides the 100 year flood doesn't come around that often. Some civil engineers should have some explaining to do.

I know I'm not sounding very sympathetic, this just seems to happen pretty frequently, and people seem shocked each time it happens.

I really do feel bad for the people who's homes are damaged, and have lost property.

I hope the cities learn from this and figure out a better way to deal with it.

o.k. fine, you're right.

Here's what going to happen with regard to the broken retaining wall and storm drain system.

(I'm making some general statements throughout this post, I don't mean them to be specific to your township. I'm using the term county because I don't know if this is within city limits, not that it matters. Also, I'm not an engineer. Most are going to stop reading after this statement, because how would I know what's really going on, and I should just shut up like I was told. Fine, stop reading. I've been around construction my whole life. I work with civil engineers frequently. I've worked on massive civil engineering projects)

The county (or counties insurance agency) will do an engineering study. They're going to look for the cause of failure. They will issue a report to the county, that will probably be filed away in the back of a drawer.

You see, out side of deliberate and malicious damage by humans (i.e., terrorism, criminal damage, etc.) nothing ever "just breaks". There's always a reason, even for "acts of God".

The report will find that the failure was caused by a combination of factors. Starting with the storms and flood that rolled through the area 3-4 weeks before the storm during which the wall failed. They'll find that the prior storms had sent an unusually high amount of debris (dirt, rocks, roots, trees, etc) into the storm drain system. They'll also note how the county did not go out and clear the debris from the earlier storms (it takes government a while to get things done). It will probably say that the debris from the early storms restricted the flow and quantity of water able to  pass through the system. That restriction backed up water into areas it should not have been, and that overwhelmed the system and caused the wall to fail. They'll also probably note in there that had the county gone out and cleared the drains, the severity of the breach would have been significantly less, if not entirely eliminated. They'll probably also find that the wall itself had some structural issues (cracks, water damage, settling, etc) that would have been found with routine inspections. They damage was probably minor, but the cumulative effect of all the problems at the same time were a little bit to much.

As far as the old homes/developments go, let me explain that a little better too.

Your town and neighborhood is probably in a perfectly acceptable location, but what about the development around you?

Going back to the example of my current town. The most recent flooding we had impacted one area of homes that were built back in the 50's. At that time, the area was fine. In the years since lot's of homes and roads have been built in the surrounding area. The area has lost open space and soil that would naturally absorb and slow the flow of water. Asphalt and concrete don't absorb water.  All those new roads just let water flow down and unfortunately, it ended up in the basements of those "older" homes.

Any fresh out of college civil engineer could explain that water always goes downhill, and it follows the path of least resistance. New roads turn into great funnels when it rains.

The civil engineers in our town found that while the storm drain system was in decent working order, it was vastly undersized when you took into account all the new roads and development. It should have been upgraded 30 years ago. I bet the engineering study in your area comes up with similar findings.

There are no"unique" problems. All civil engineering failures have the same root causes. The homeowners who suffered property damage will, no doubt, be contacting lawyers and filing claims against the county. The attorneys will hire engineers that will find problems similar to those I've described above. The county will be on the hook (rightly or wrongly) for the damages. I'd put the blame on the zoning commission and county engineers from 20 years ago.

As far as the people who were rescued, I apologize for assuming they were stupid (your word, I believe I used "moron")

Also, you can only build on swamps stuffed with garbage in California, specifically the Bay Area.

I'm sorry for the damage your area has sustained. Hopefully your trails will be up and runnable soon.

(feel free to call me names and attack me personally again if you don't like what I've written here. Feel free to point out how stupid I am)

edit:grammatical errors

 

 

........, this just seems to happen pretty frequently, and people seem shocked each time it happens.

 

Despite how it may look to you on TV, these floods aren't all happening in the same place.   

Yowzers !

Flooding was one of the things I loved about growing up in Louisiana.  Everybody would pull out their canoes/fishing boats and just sort of cruise around the neighborhood.  Then there was swimming with the dog in the front yard, chasing the neighbors' goldfish up the ditch, watching the water creep closer and closer to the front step, reading by kerosene lamp ("hurricane lamp".)

Good times, if you're young enough...