Heavy rains dumped water and sand into Deborah Redmond’s front yard and driveway and flooded the crawlspace of her Silver Valley home Sunday.
The water and sand flowed down on to her property at 23500 Larch Ave. in the morning. What seems to have happened is that water pooled uphill on the steep slope where Larch Avenue is being extended, then gave way.
“It just came in a big gush, big rocks in the garden and they still haven’t cleaned it up. It was actually pretty scary.”
The mini flash flood lasted only a few minutes and the main part of her house is OK, though the yard and driveway are still a mess of sand and gravel. Work crews have cleaned off her driveway.
“My garden, all my grass, has this thick layer of stuff on it.”
The City of Maple Ridge is extending Larch Avenue to make a road connection between 236th Street and Balsam Street. That will join one side of Silver Valley to the other, allowing motorists a secondary access and improving pedestrian safety.
The process involves building up a roadway base of gravel and sand to even out the steep slope. But the heavy rains on the weekend carved a small crevice into that soil, washing debris down the Larch Avenue slope.
Maple Ridge public works manager Frank Quinn said a geotechnical engineer will inspect the site and decide what other measures to take.
Redmond is wondering where the water is now going because it’s no longer coming down the road.
The road should be completed early in 2015.