Post by Logan on May 10, 2016 4:30:25 GMT -6
COLUMBIA, SC -- Property owners near Fort Jackson are seeking up to $20 million from the federal government for what they say is the U.S. Army’s failure to maintain a dam that burst during last fall’s historic flooding and rainfall in Columbia.
A federal lawsuit filed Monday says water rushed off the Army training base after the Semmes Lake dam failed, causing more than a dozen homes in the King’s Grant neighborhood to flood the morning of Oct. 4.
The lawsuit, the first filed against Fort Jackson since the storm, says the fort knew for two years that the Semmes Lake dam posed a “serious hazard,’’ but did not make repairs to the 1940s-era structure or warn the public of the dangers. Federal inspectors cited problems with the dam in 2013, records show.
An inspector with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers said deficiencies outlined in the 2013 inspection “may have led to the failure’’ of the Semmes Lake dam, according to an email obtained by The State newspaper in January.
Read more here: www.thestate.com/news/local/article76659172.html
A federal lawsuit filed Monday says water rushed off the Army training base after the Semmes Lake dam failed, causing more than a dozen homes in the King’s Grant neighborhood to flood the morning of Oct. 4.
The lawsuit, the first filed against Fort Jackson since the storm, says the fort knew for two years that the Semmes Lake dam posed a “serious hazard,’’ but did not make repairs to the 1940s-era structure or warn the public of the dangers. Federal inspectors cited problems with the dam in 2013, records show.
An inspector with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers said deficiencies outlined in the 2013 inspection “may have led to the failure’’ of the Semmes Lake dam, according to an email obtained by The State newspaper in January.
Read more here: www.thestate.com/news/local/article76659172.html