A steady rain fell on Starkville Tuesday morning as Susan Shappley watched the water rise in the channel behind her former home on Maple Drive.
Shappley shook her head in disgust and looked across the channel, through the woods and up a hill toward the back of Starkville Crossing Shopping Center.
“It has gotten progressively worse as they”ve added more stuff up there,” Shappley said.
During heavy rains, storm water runoff flows down the hill behind Maple Drive and into the ditch which lines the rear of the properties. The ditch levels out and flows slightly uphill just before Shappley”s property line, then continues its downward trek toward Stark Road.
When water hits the uphill portion of the small channel, it flows over the banks, through Shappley”s backyard and into her old house. She still owns the home, but has moved out because of the recurring flooding. Shappley now lives with and takes care of her elderly parents on nearby Sassafras Drive.
“It”s ridiculous,” she said. “I”ve gotten too old to be worrying about my house all the time.”
When a storm brought heavy rains and an EF-2 tornado to Starkville during the late night hours of New Year”s Eve and the early morning hours of Jan. 1, Shappley”s home flooded, along with the homes of two neighbors, she said. Three inches of water were still on the floor at 6:45 a.m. on New Year”s day.
Luckily for Shappley, she already had placed what”s left of her furniture and other belongings on top of six-inch wooden platforms. But after years of flooding – Shappley says it typically happens several times a year, except in 2009, when Starkville experienced a dry spell – all carpeting has been removed and the floors have been destroyed. Water has warped the wall paneling and mold is growing throughout the structure. Shappley won”t even go into the house to clean unless she”s wearing a respiratory mask.
Only Shappley”s dogs live in the home now. The dogs were huddled on a couch to avoid the water when Shappley showed up New Year”s morning to survey the most recent damage.
“Those poor dogs,” Shappley said. “You want to talk about being happy to see somebody. You should have seen them when I came in.”
Much of the flooding is being caused by a private drainage system at Starkville Crossing Shopping Center and two retention ponds behind Maple Drive which tend to overflow during heavy storms, Mayor Parker Wiseman said. But relief is on the way.
State law allows the city to make improvements to a private drainage system if it presents a public health or safety hazard, Wiseman said. City Attorney Chris Latimer and City Engineer Edward Kemp are working on details of a project to divert storm water runoff away from Maple Drive and toward Stark Road.
Wiseman hopes the Starkville Board of Aldermen will approve a plan during its Feb. 1 meeting to help alleviate the flooding problems.
“It”s a sad situation,” Wiseman said. “It”s heartbreaking.”
Maple Drive is in the Green Oaks neighborhood and is represented by Ward 1 Alderman Ben Carver. The first-term aldermen has been to Shappley”s home several times and said Tuesday he is anxious to help facilitate a solution.
“Something”s fixing to happen,” Carver said.
As a short-term fix, Shappley has installed cement boards which stand approximately 12 inches high along the edge of the channel which borders her property. Still, water flows over the banks of the ditch on her neighbor”s property and enters her yard and home.
“I don”t know what else to do,” Shappley said. “We”ve had this problem out here for years.”
The next Board of Aldermen meeting takes place Feb. 1 at 5:30 p.m. in City Hall.
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