(From NBC40.net)
This is the link to the video coverage of the story.
Sandbags line a lakeside road in Hammonton. For many communities yesterday's rain and melting snow was too much to handle.
“The damage goes into my basement and into my building. Its thousands of dollars, my heater is ruined, stuff that's stored in the buildings,” said resident Doug Laubert.
Laubert says that the damage is so bad that he can no longer use his driveway. “Water has quite a power to it,” he said.
Homes surrounding Nescochague Lake saw their fair share of flooding. Retreating floodwater revealed some of the damage. Still, some roads remained closed and homes flooded.
Many say yesterday's steady rainfall melted a chunk of the nearly 24 inches of snow dumped on Hammonton during last week's blizzard. Residents claim that occasional flooding comes with the lakeside territory. One resident believes the problem is manmade.
“They built a new dam, which raised the level of the lake already eight inches so it impacted me mostly,” said Laubert.
Laubert believes that the dam across the street from his home, now mostly under water, is making the flooding worse. He blames the Nescochague Lake Association that constructed it. The lake association believes that the dam had nothing to with the flooding. President Ron Lischak issued this statement.
"There has been no new dam constructed on Lake Nescochague. The construction that was done this past summer was an emergency repair to the existing auxiliary spillway. The flooding last night and today has nothing to do with the emergency repair to the auxiliary spillway this past summer. The flooding is similar to what has occurred in past years during periods of heavy rain and is the result of the topography of the properties northeast of the Pleasant mills dam along CR 623."
Despite this neighbors believe that this is some of the worst flooding they have seen in years.
Monday, December 28, 2009
Lake Nescochague Flooding
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12 comments:
What a mess!!!!
Laubert had been complaining about the rise in the lake after the Lake Association's "fix" for months before this happened.
Was a new dam built or a spillway just fixed?
There must have been professional engineers and permits involved either way. Someone must know the answer.
Why would the summer construction raise the lake 8 inches?
Something's fishy at Lake Nescochague.
I hope that the Association has insurance for these sort of things.
I hope everyone on the lake has flood insurance.
At least the 4:29 poster has enough common sense to question the accuracy of Laubert's rantings. He's turned the old mill into a junkyard without a license and now has the audacity to complain about what his neighbors do to maintain the environment! Maybe its time the zoning officer takes a closer look at just what's in that old mill? And he doesn't even own the property - he just rents it from an organization up north - wonder what they would say if they saw what he's done to the place?
It seems logical that the lake should be kept at a level which would allow for events such as this. This is at least the second time in two years that the lake has overflowed. This adds a substantial amount of water to the already swollen river which has resulted in the flooding of homes down river as well as the damage to the Old Mill.
I am sure other residents on the river would join me in asking that the Lake Association keep this in mind for the future.
re 8:10 am
I didn't see any of the junk in the video. It must have been all under the water.
re 10:25am
That's a good idea.
All the river people should sign a letter requesting that the lake be lowered during wet seasons.
Present this to the Lake Association. It might help save their homes from destruction,too.
My question would be,if the Lake Association had the power to manually lower the lake,why didn't they take that preventative measure before the snowstorm?
Even after the snow,the weather forcast called for heavy rain and high temperatures. Anyone could see that this would bring a fast melt and heavy runoff.
The Lake Association would have had many chances to slowly lower the water level before the storms and not to do so was an extreme act of negligence that resulted in destruction and damage of property.
Does anyone know how or why an Association received control of Lake Nescochague?
It is my understanding that Nescochague Lake is privately owned by the adjoining land owners, and that those land owners are the members of the "Lake Association". Some of those land owners actually live across the street from the lake, but own land on the lake. The dam at the lake has been found to be substandard in the past, and it has been in dispute as to whose responsibility it is to maintain it, i.e. the association, the county, the state, etc.
The 10:05 pm post is my question too. Doesn't the town own some property that abuts the lake? Who pays the property taxes on the lake?
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