SECOND DRAINAGE CULVERT – GERLACH LAKE: The worst damage we had was the ‘slow landslide’ around this second culvert. Keep in mind, that there is another 8 foot of culvert pipe that was attached to the front of this one but is now down in the bottom of the hole. For everyone’s knowledge, in the 2012 Polk County Mitigation report, there was a ‘warning of sorts’ that this could happen with another large flood in HLE (). I have said before that we had, at any given time, 4 to 8 feet of flood waters, with the current moving rapidly for several days, during Harvey. This amount of water can ‘destabilize’ the ground completely. The Atlantic had a great article on the ‘earth movement’ Harvey did. (). Because the ground around that particular culvert was already on a steep downhill slope, the ground destabalizing was bound to start the process of erosion. And, it did and it continues to this day. From the time that Richardson’s gave the HLECC the estimate of $17,400+, until now, that erosion has more than doubled in width and length. I am sure that estimate will also, at the very least, double. We show $99,061 in ALL savings and checking accounts as of 4/15/2018. It would take 20% of all of our monies to pay the first amount and I am guessing it is going to be closer to 40% to actually do that repair. And, that is only one repair, with no guarantee. The pics below really need no explanation. You all know the daily risk connected to this culvert. If someone takes this curve at night and loses control, I cringe to even think of the outcome. What we had, post Harvey, was our own ‘California style mudslide’. The only difference is ours has been slow and continuous. IMHO, this drainage needs to be moved to a new location, a good distance away from this original one. Fill dirt and rip-rap repairs will not work.
