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County deals with flooding
North Beach reports several inches of water on town roads
Wednesday, Nov. 18, 2009
 Click here to enlarge this photo Submitted photos by SEAN GALLAGHER
Marty Meyer and Fred Bauer position sand bags in hopes of slowing flooding in Neeld Estates in Huntingtown.
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Mother Nature unleashed her fury at the end of last week with heavy rains and north easterly winds causing tidal surges and flooding in several parts of the county and eroding the public beach in North Beach again.
The remnants of Hurricane Ida brought homes in Neeld Estate precariously close to destruction, according to a letter from resident Anne Jones, and caused an overflow at the wastewater facility in Solomons.
Twenty five members of the Huntingtown Volunteer Fire Department assisted the Neeld Estate community beginning on Friday at 11 a.m. though high tide and then they were called back again around 6 p.m. when "the situation worsened," said Chief Jon Riffe.
"We were trying to stay out there as long as we could," said Riffe, who commandeered four dump truck loads of sand to make sand bags and called Dominos Pizza and they donated 10 pizzas. They cut power to the houses that were most threatened as a safety precaution, he said.
"A couple of the houses were threatened to be pulled out to the bay," Riffe said, so the department set up lights and stayed there until 11 p.m. to monitor the situation. Four members from Prince Frederick Volunteer Fire Department also helped with the operation, he added.
Jones said Tuesday that her cottage in Neeld Estates is still in danger, but credits neighbors like Marty Meyer and county officials with saving her home from collapse.
Jones said the beach under her home has been dangerously eroded. "I don't know what's holding the front room of my cottage up. The shoreline is right outside the door," she said. She said Meyer had offered to put up jacks under the cottage to keep it from collapsing.
The real story, Jones said, was the help she and the community received. "It was overwhelming, incredibly overwhelming. [Commissioners President] Wilson Parran was out there with sandbags; [Commissioner] Barbara Stinnett was calling trucks and getting sand. It was just incredible how people rallied to save five cottages from falling into the bay."
In North Beach, Mayor Mike Bojokles said, "The erosion on the beach was just incredible today," at the town council meeting last Thursday night. Earlier that day Dick Myers, a representative from U.S. Sen. Barbara Mikulski's office (D-Md.) called the mayor and asked how the town was doing, Bojokles said.
"It's nice to have a call from the senator's office," Bojokles said, adding, they were concerned about getting people out of town if necessary.
Director of Public Works Donnie Bowen gave the council an assessment of the town saying, "We're wet and I don't think it's going to dry out any time soon." He estimated 16 inches of standing water on the corner of Chesapeake Avenue and 5th Street and 8 to 9 inches on Bay Avenue and 3rd Street with both Chesapeake and Bay avenues closed off in areas due to flooding. "Three times we had to close roads, four counting tonight," within the past month, he said.
He told the council that water was going into the sewer pump and causing problems with high flow at two sewer pumping stations.
According to a press release from county spokesman Mark Volland, the storm "contributed to a sanitary sewer overflow at the Solomons Wastewater Headworks Facility in Solomons." The release said the overflow started Thursday evening and ended early Friday morning. "Approximately 230,000 gallons of untreated, diluted wastewater was discharged into the Patuxent River," the release said. "The overflow was released from an emergency holding pond and traveled 450 feet over ground to the Patuxent River. The area along the overflow pathway was disinfected with lime."
Volland's release said the county's department of public works called in septic haulers and acted to minimize the overflow. County officials notified the health department and Maryland Department of the Environment.
In North Beach, Bowen said he and his crew have been preparing for storms by cleaning out the storm pipes in storm water areas this past month, digging out seven loads of silt and sand, and they have been running the leaf vacuum through town two days a week to keep drainage pipes clear.
Bowen, who said he checked with the drainage pumps' manufacturer to verify that the pumps and valves are working properly, suggested the town research purchasing a flow meter to find out the amount of flow the pumps are putting out.
"Right now we're just guessing what the pumps are doing," Bowen said and the council agreed a flow meter would be helpful.
Council member Lyn Streigel told the town that the council talked at its work session this month about hiring an engineering firm to study the flooding issues and develop a plan. Streigel said they talked about approaching Ben Dyer Assoc., who solved the flooding problems on Chesapeake Avenue for Chesapeake Beach by raising the road.
The town has not had a water study in more than 20 years, Streigel said, suggesting to write up a RFP (request for proposal) "to figure out what to do with the water."
The town council agreed that Bowen should meet with Chesapeake Beach engineer Paul Woodburn this week and work on long term solutions for the town's flooding problem.
"We'll have a master plan and work from there," Bowen said.
The town engineer, John Hofmann, also continues to work with the county on its emergency management plan that includes the flooding issue in North Beach, Bojokles said.
Staff writer Carrie Lovejoy contributed to this report.
