While the Eastern Shore has been hit with four straight days of rainfall, yesterday afternoon things started getting pretty serious traffic wise. By mid day water from Middleneck Pond started overflowing onto the right hand north bound lane of Rt. 13, (first two pictures).
By mid evening emergency personnel from the City of Salisbury and State Highway closed off the right hand lane and ultimately closed Rt. 13 alltogether by Friday evening.
Many travelers became quite upset because of the way they chose to re-route everyone through a residential neighborhood. Some said it was a 4 mile detour. I personally did not take the detour so I can't be confident of that being a fact. However, they could have warned people much earlier, even as far back as business Rt. 50 and brought people around to the Bypass and back to Rt. 13.
Some wondered why they didn't detour people onto Northwood Drive. Well, Northwood Drive was also under water. What I have provided above is probably more detailed, (photo wise) than most other news sources.
The cause of the problem was the failure to maintain the ditches and pipes. The main blockage was just below the railroad tracks near the Knights of Columbus on Emerson Drive. The pipes that go underneath the R/R Tracks were completely blocked off and they could not find proper equipment to reach down that far and through an additional 10 feet of water to remove the debris. So the City brought in pumps and is currently trying to pump some 6,000 gallons a minute over top of the R/R Tracks and back into the Johnson Lake area. So far they have seen about a 1/4 to 1/2 inch drop in the water level, so don't expect things to clear up any time soon.
Besides all the trash and debris, one of the biggest concerns right now is the structural integrity of Rt. 13. Once the water is removed, many are concerned there may be a huge sink hole and this could be a serious reality.
I spoke to many local residents who said they had been complaining to the former Mayor Barrie Tilghman about the City keeping up these streams and clearing out the debris but they said that the former Mayor kept telling them it wasn't the City's responsibility. However, if you look at all the signs around the property the signs clearly say it is City property, Keep Out! No fishing is allowed and it is enforced by the City.
Because the City failed to maintain these ponds and streams, the photos above are the end result of yet another infrastructure problem in the City. Taxes continue to rise and we were subjected to many years of listening to Barrie Tilghman, Mike Dunn, Lynn Cathcart, Shanie Shields and Gary Comegys stating that "Growth Pays For Growth," this is yet another prime example of how full of sh!t these people were/are.
Money went to paying off questionable developer reimbursements instead of keeping up the infrastructure and now businesses may pay the most serious price should Rt. 13 get shut down. Other major funds went into a new $14,000,000.00 Fire Station, millions more into Fire Equipment, $84,000,000.00 went into a useless Waste Water Treatment Plant and the list just goes on and on. I was even informed today that there are huge poy holes on the brand new North East Collector Road!
Salisbury is a mess Folks. We have some new people in Office and quite frankly I doubt anyone is going to take the bull by the horns and face these major issues head on. Mind you, the Mayor that does do this will probably not last more than one term because they'll be freezing up every ounce of spending and hiring in order to slightly catch up to all of the screw ups Barie Tilghman left behind.
You don't, (with all due respect) hire a House Wife to run a multi million dollar City. There are major responsibilities in taking care of a City the size of Salisbury, most of which were ignored.
23 comments:
thats not much water at all... must have been worse earlier.
a lot more water than that in oc.
anonymous 9:47, tell that to the tens of thousands of people being detoured and delayed. None of this would have happened if they had simply kept things clear and maintained. After all, where exactly did all our tax money go anyway?
Forecasters predicted this magnitude of a storm last weekend. IMHO this is plenty of time to get the ball rolling for the prevention of drainage problems. Why is it that nothing gets done correctly around here? Oh wait, never mind we are on Delmarva. Everyone here is more worried about their own agenda rather than doing their job. Its called incompetence. Welcome to the eastern shore.
Some how, some way, this is actually the Rail Roiad Companies responsibility. Because the pipes clogged under their property, the City claims it's their fault. Yet the City should have maintained the land BEFORE the R/R overpass. I don't know, go figure.
And dont forget the root problem,LITTERING!The banks of Middleneck are always covered with garbage that people toss out.And it aint just there,all over wherever you have ditches overflowing theres all kinds of garbage floating around.We ought to do like NY State and others and have redemption centers that pay deposits on glass,plastic and metal containers,that would help alot.
Sorry to go on but it just amazes me that some people are too lazy to use garbage cans.
See Joe, the SFD was ahead of the game in wanting a new fire boat. :-) How else would they be able to respond?
I would worry about the structural integrity of Rt. 13, especially now. Last week, work was underway at that spot and the roadway had numerous cuts and parts removed. Crews were patching the roadway together at night and reopening the holes the next day.
You still have a problem since you folks wanted a part time teacher/part time mayor. You could have had a retired engineer who could have given full time & attention to the job of Mayor.
You got what you voted for!
How about the folks who live along the pond. Normally they are 5 to 6 feet above the water line on a normal heavy rain. Several homes are flooded.
I have a simple solution. Chuck a few sticks of dynamite under the RR pass. Or a 5 pound pack of Thermite to burn it out.
Seriously. I remember being on duty during the 1989 Nor' Easter. That was some major rain as well. Just like this one, in 1989 filled the Pocomoke River until it breached it's banks and the one in '89 washed away bridges. We had some huge amounts of rain over the course of the past four days.
You Go Joe! Keep up the fight in letting people know the "dirty politics" of this town. It stinks. And Yes, the taxpayers should absolutely be informed as to EXACTLY WHERE THEIR TAX MONEY IS BEING SPENT!!! SHOULD BE LAW!
blutojthetotmom said...
And dont forget the root problem,LITTERING!The banks of Middleneck are always covered with garbage that people toss out.And it aint just there,all over wherever you have ditches overflowing theres all kinds of garbage floating around.We ought to do like NY State and others and have redemption centers that pay deposits on glass,plastic and metal containers,that would help alot.
Sorry to go on but it just amazes me that some people are too lazy to use garbage cans.
10:39 PM
Bluto a lot of that litter around the banks of Middleneck are because of the homeless that live on those banks during the Summer. And Iretons right hand pet Lore Chambers keeps inviting the Homeless from all over the country to Salisbury. That needs to stop.
Another problem is Ireton and Louweasel encouraging the welfare mongers of the Church Street/Doverdale area to litter and they will pick up after them. Nothing like the Obama Lover Ireton and the Socialism programs. The Democrat Socialist Party, what a freakin Joke!
could somebody post when rt 13 is open again
Rt 13 has one lane north and one south as of late this afternoon
anonymous 6:56, when I went by around 2:00 PM there was only one south bound lane open and nothing heading north. When did that change?
The homeless arent the only shore residents that litter. Just look around, ppl here dont care about much. Trash in their yards, broken down cars, unkept lawns and furniture on the porch. I drive by 2 local houses on rt 54 Line road that has had a daily yard sale for the past 6 months. All these belongings have been left outside for months, soaked after the recent storms and blown all over their yard but they still have their stuff out there. Is it really that hard to pick up your stuff? This place is the bizarro world.
It was a real cluster banger. I can understand the delays and closure but the detour was completely unmarked. once you got off 13 there was no direction as to where to go. Unless you new the area it was a mess. Stoooopid!!!!!
The Rt 54/Line Road yard sale has been ongoing for the last 5 years, not 6 months.
You still have a problem since you folks wanted a part time teacher/part time mayor. You could have had a retired engineer who could have given full time & attention to the job of Mayor.
Are you kidding me, Gary and Engineer all he engineered was a way to not do work for about 25 years. If he would have been elected, he would have took naps in office all day, then go home refreshed. You would have been better with one of the Monkey's from the zoo rather than him.
Should of voted for NONE of the ABOVE, Like Brewters Millions
Is that a bentley in that one picture?
"could have had a retired engineer for mayor?"
Who, pray might that have been?
(the engineer portion of that statement DQ's gary.)
anonymous 9:47... or tell that to the people whom live behind and beside that lake whose homes are now condemned because of the water
An "engineer" of what?A frickin train wreck?That was funny,I rode past a state highway truck today,aparrently it took FOUR SHA workers in hardhats standing around in a huddle to put 3 shovels full of hot patch in a hole on Route 413,no wonder our taxes are so high.
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