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LMAO..."shows dark water - which shouldn't be there - and a large crack".... best line in the whole story.
ST. MARTINS -- Update: Feb. 20
The city has agreed to foot the bill for two homes destroyed by a raw sewage explosion.
When a Jefferson City crew responded to a complaint about a clogged sewer line in St. Martins on Thursday, they used a flusher truck to fix the problem. But the high pressure, combined with the old sewer pipes, forced raw sewage to literally explode inside two mobile homes.
"Everything has been still just a mess," Tom Ahler said Friday as he walked through his house. "They've shoveled up the majority of the stuff but it's still, the carpet's still soaked."
On Thursday, feces and urine spewed from sinks, tubs and toilets. Several inches of waste coated the entire house, floors and walls. Friday, two cleaning crews shoveled the bulk of the sewage out of the house. However, Ahler's kitchen still had raw sewage everywhere - and the smell, as one would imagine, was nauseating.
A video taken of the sewer line's interior shows dark water - which shouldn't be there - and a large crack. The sewer system, which is now outdated, was built decades ago and poorly designed. Jefferson City was asked to take it over by the state in the early '90s after the previous owner, the Cole County Sewer District, went bankrupt.
The system, which had problems, was never repaired.
'Pipes weren't in proper repair'
Drew Hilpert, an attorney for Jefferson City, said the city takes responsibility for what happened to the two homes.
"The reason we're taking responsibility for it is because the pipes weren't in proper repair," Hilpert said. "Not because the flusher trucks blew too much water into the house."
So now the city's working with an adjuster and an appraiser to figure out the damages, and how much they'll have to pay the two homeowners.
"If these repairs exceed the cost of the damage," he said. "Then we'll have to talk about whether the city just needs to buy the entire house."
Ahler agrees, and said it would be cheaper for the city to just buy him a new mobile home - and he's already looking for one.
"I've seen it firsthand, I've smelled it," Ahler said. "I don't see how you could get rid of all that and still live in there safely."
Cleaning crews told Ahler it would cost $20,000 to clean out his neighbor, Johnny Bernard's house. They didn't give him an estimate for his house.
The city has also agreed to pay Ahler $100 a night for a hotel, or $50 a night to stay with friends, which is what Ahler's doing until he can find a more permanent place to live.
Original Story:
Johnny Bernard's house is nothing short of a disgusting, putrid mess.
"I wouldn't let an animal stay in there," Bernard said.
What started with a neighbor's simple call about a clogged sewer line turned into a nightmare for two families living at the Meadowbrook Trailer Park in St. Martins.
When a Jefferson City crew came to clear the clog - using what they call a jet truck - the high pressure forced feces and urine to literally explode inside their mobile home.
'A fountain of feces'
"I go past the bathroom," said Bernard. "And I'm noticing, like a fountain of feces and urine, come out of my toilet."
Feces and urine coats the entire house, floors and walls. And the smell, as one would imagine, is both sickening and revolting.
"The smell is gagging, overwhelming," said Tom Ahler who lives next door, and whose house was also destroyed by the sewage backup. "If you can picture three inches of crap floating around on the floor that's what this is."
In both homes, you can see raw sewage everywhere - flowing out of sinks, toilets, tubs - splattering everywhere and leaving inches of waste on the floor. In Ahler's house it got all over kitchen appliances. In Bernard's home, thousands of dollars worth of clothes were destroyed.
"It's repulsive, it's very disgusting," said Tanya Eddy, Bernard's live-in girlfriend. "Something no one should have to deal with."
To make things worse, the families say workers with Jefferson City's Wastewater Treatment wouldn't even come in to see the damage. Instead they handed the men a brochure titled, "What To Do In Case of Sewer Backup," and told them to call the city's legal department.
They say the city never offered to help clean up the mess, or even put them up in a hotel for the night.
"I can file a claim," said Ahler. "But it's not helping me with what my problems are tonight."
City offers to settle, not clean
After the two families told the city that KRCG was coming to take a look at their homes, the city sent a claims adjuster who Bernard said offered to buy the house to avoid paying to have it cleaned up.
"He talked to me and wanted to know if there was anyway I could just settle it and you know sell it to him," he said. "That way they wouldn't have to pay for ServPro to clean it."
ServPro is the cleaning company the families called on their own Thursday to clean up the mess. They weren't able to finish the overwhelming job because the plumbing in the house is now clogged. Ahler said the city crews came out a second time Thursday night but now they need a plumber.
Ahler couldn't afford a motel, so he stayed with friends Thursday night.
The city says they use jet trucks all the time and, in this case, something went terribly wrong. Of course, that's little consolation to two families who now have to find another place to stay.
LMAO..."shows dark water - which shouldn't be there - and a large crack".... best line in the whole story.
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