Landslide pushes house off foundation
Mike Childs watched as hillside gave way and slammed into building
LARK HARBOUR — There was nothing good about Good Friday for a Lark Harbour couple when the home they were living in was pushed off its foundation by a landslide on March 29.
Mike Childs and his family believe the hill behind the house would not have come crashing down on them if not for water from the road above being directed onto the family’s property.
Childs and his girlfriend, Crystal Macdonald, had been living in the house on Main Road for a month. The 60-year-old home belongs to his brother, Myles Childs, but the property has been in the family for much longer.
Childs knew there was a lot of rain expected, but didn’t think it would be as much as what fell.
When he woke up on Good Friday, he could see water running everywhere.
“I looked out the back window and I could see a big pool of water behind the house,” he told Saltwire while at his parents’ home in nearby York Harbour on Wednesday, April 3.
He went into the basement to check for water and then outside to try to divert the water that was coming onto the property the best he could,
“It was doing no good,” he said.
At 12:20 p.m. Childs was going to go back in the basement, but instead went to check a culvert in the driveway. It turned out to be a good decision.
“As I turned around, I saw the bank just come down and push the house right down against the garage and the car. It was just like a river coming out of the bank. It was just flooding.”
Childs said he could hardly believe what was happening.
“I was in awe, actually,” he said.
HOUSE STARTED MOVING
Macdonald was inside when the landslide hit the house.
She was sitting on the couch when she heard a bang and assumed it came from the basement, where she thought Childs was checking on things.
“It wasn’t until the second hit and then the house starts moving. I’m like, ‘Oh Lord.’ I just grabbed ahold of the couch,” she said.
As the house was pushed off its foundation, things got thrown around, including an older-style 55-inch television, which hit Macdonald on the arm.
When the house stopped moving, she called out to Childs.
He could see her through a window and dropped the shovel he was holding and rushed to the house. The door was pinned, but he managed to get inside, although the angled position of the house made him feel stomach sick.
Macdonald couldn’t get to her shoes, so Childs carried her out of the house and to the car, which he drove away from the debris.
The shock of what happened didn’t really hit them until they went to his parents’ house to tell them what had happened. The fact that they both could have been seriously injured or killed is not lost on them.
“It could have been a lot worse. A heck of a lot worse,” said Macdonald.
‘A POWERFUL FORCE’
Childs said there had never been as much water on the property as there was that day and he believes what happened is because of water and sewer work that has been done by the town above the property on Joyce Road.
“When they put big pipes and culverts in and redirected (the water) down the hill, then it (started) getting a lot of water,” he said.
He said engineering must have been done before the water and sewer went in and there should have been a plan so the water wasn’t diverted to the property.
He suspects ditches that were dug by homeowners have added to the problem. Having ditches on properties is normal, he said, but they should not be allowed to divert water to somebody else’s land.
“You make a way to divert it away from other people’s property. Just because there’s only one house down there doesn’t mean they can do it. It’s still someone’s property,” he said.
“Water is a powerful force. It’s got to be handled properly. It’s got to be contained and diverted the way it’s supposed to be, not just let loose on someone else’s property,” said Childs.
DON’T KNOW WHERE TO TURN
Childs said his brother has raised concerns about the water with the town before and contacted them right after the landslide. He said they feel let down by the town because the response has been that it’s a homeowner’s issue.
“But if it’s coming from other people’s property shooting down on your land diverted by the water and sewer or the community, then yeah, it is not your issue. Everybody’s got ditches on either side of their house, and I don’t see it diverted down on anybody else’s land.”
There was no insurance on the house, but even with insurance, Childs said, the damage may have been considered a natural act.
He said they need direction on what to do next, but don’t know where to turn, so they’ll stay at his parents’ house until they can find another place.
The house is still unstable, and Childs figures it’s still moving, so haven’t been able to go in to try to salvage anything. He expects some water has gotten inside.
“Hopefully, we don’t get no more rain because more bank might come down, because it’s alive now. It won’t take much more now for another chunk to fall down,” said Childs.
WAITING ON REPORT
On Thursday, April 4, Lark Harbour Mayor Wade Park told Saltwire the town is looking into what happened with the Childs’ property.
He said someone from Transportation and Infrastructure was in the town on Wednesday, April 3, to examine the scene.
“So, they don’t know if the water from up by Joyce (Road), as they’re saying, had something to do with that or if it was just Mother Nature at its best saturating the ground and making it move or whatever,” said Park.
“We’re kind of waiting for a report back from him to see what, if anything, we can do or what was involved there. Until then there’s not much we can say or do.”
Park said what happened on Good Friday is very concerning, and the landslide at the Childs’ property was not the only one that day, as another one about 300 metres away on Main Road near the brook blocked the road at 5 a.m.
He said the person from Transportation and Infrastructure also looked at other areas of the town and found ground that had moved out toward Little Port.
“There’s ground that moved that never moved before,” said Park.
“We had a significant amount of rain falling, like 93 millimetres in a very short span of time, like a 12-hour span of time. That’s a lot of water.
“With the rainfall that we had, luckily there was no big snowfall on the ground that could have added to the water flow. We’re very fortunate about that,” said Park.