To: Mr Yon Lambert, Director, Department of Transportation and Environmental Services
Dear Mr Lambert,
This is the third letter I’ve written to you. You did answer my first letter of July 27 but I have not gotten a reply to the second of Aug. 24. As you know, Alexandria had another flooding incident on Sept 10. Luckily my house was spared – by inches, though others were not so fortunate. Ironically, the rain occurred at almost the exact time workers were finishing the repairs to my floors from the July 23, 2020 flood! They were astonished at the amount of water that accumulated around my house so quickly.
I hope you subscribe to the Nextdoor bulletin board site. There are over 150 posts about Alexandrians’ experiences with local flooding on Sept 10.
I asked for help in my last letter. I urge the City to provide the services of civil engineers to help homeowners devise and understand solutions to the flooding in our homes. We can’t wait for a ten-year City plan to help us. I hope such a plan is in effect, though I haven't seen it. I doubt the RiverRenew project will help the storm drains take away water faster. In fact, I’m afraid it will slow things down as the sewage and water need to be separated. Several people on Nextdoor mentioned they have tried many solutions. We looked into crawl space encapsulation. For $45,000, we couldn’t be assured the proposed solution would solve our flooding problem. It would make our crawl space much nicer but when the water gets two feet up the sides of our house, as in July 2019, I don’t think it would be effective.
I am also asking for a meeting with you and relevant staff. The Mayor has offered to meet with residents. My neighbor, Christine Thuot on Gibbon St, has contacted him and asked for a meeting. But we both want to meet with engineers who understand the City’s sewer/drain system and can offer practical solutions to homeowners. We need solutions not statistics.
Thank you for your attention to this serious matter.
Ann S Liddle
Alexandria