Cobb commissioner stormwater town hall Archives

*George Hitchcock, who lives near East Cobb Park, showed commissioners this week photos of flood damage to his property from the Sept. 7, 2021 storms.*

Cobb Commissioner Jerica Richardson will be holding a virtual town hall meeting Tuesday to evaluate options to address continuing stormwater problems stemming from heavy flooding last fall.

Richardson said the meeting is a “follow up” to a previous meeting she held for homeowners who sustained heavy damage from those storms, and who have been critical of the county’s response.

The town hall via Zoom takes place from 6:30 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. Tuesday, and the public can sign up by clicking here.

A number of homeowners in Richardson’s East Cobb district have expressed frustration at being told they’re responsible for making repairs ranging from $25,000-$250,000 for what they said was flooding caused by poor stormwater infrastructure.

Several East Cobb residents sounded off to commissioners again on Tuesday about their continuing plight.

Hill Wright, who lives in the Spring Creek neighborhood off Holt Road, has been coordinating an effort to press the county for a stronger response, and said he talks to previously affected residents every time it rains.

“What I hear is that the damage is worse or it’s happening again,” he said during a public comment session. “They tell me they don’t know how long they can hang on, or if the next storm will push them over the edge.”

Dan Larkin, a resident of the Meadow Brook neighborhood off Powers Ferry Road, said one of his neighbors had four feet of water flood their home during the September storm.

Stormwater is collecting in two vacant lots on Oriole Drive, and the amount has been escalating due to runoff from new homes in areas “that should never have been built on.

“This is not looking out for the public at all,” Larkin said. “What will be done to keep this from happening again?”

Rebecca Klein bought a home in 2020 near a creek that feeds into Sope Creek, close to the Sewell Mill Library and Cultural Center.

She said on the night of Sept. 7, “I looked in horror as that peaceful little creek raged to eight feet deep in our back yard.”

There was muddy water in the basement that rose to more than three feet.

The cleanup, Klein said, wasn’t the problem. The floods destroyed her neighbor’s driveway and crushed the culvert in her yard, creating a sinkhole near the foundation of her home.

She said she was told by the Cobb stormwater office that it had no record of the culvert and the homeowners may have installed it.

“This is not possible,” Klein said, her voice breaking with emotion. The culvert “was far too large for us to install with the house in the way. There’s no possible way of the county not knowing as this crosses three properties.”

She said she was told she would be responsible for what she said are six-figure repairs.

“How in the world can a homeowner afford these repairs?” she said. “How can the county pick and choose what to maintain?

“We are facing financial ruin on a home we haven’t even lived in for two years. Every time it rains, I cringe in fear that that hole is going to get bigger.”

George Hitchcock, who lives off Robinson Road near East Cobb Park, said on Sept. 7 his neighborhood received 6-7 feet of stormwater runoff from Robinson Creek. His driveway and those belonging to two neighbors were washed out.

“We recognize that this was a unique event, but in the last two months we’ve had two more flash floods,” Hitchcock said. “Even an inch of rain now is enough to put the creek up and out of its bounds.”

He said while he has FEMA flood insurance, it wouldn’t cover the repair costs from the Sept. 7 flooding, resulting in a “significant out-of-pocket expense.”

At the end of the meeting, Richardson announced the town hall, saying that her presentation will detail a “comprehensive list . . . . of options that we can take as a community to curb this issue holistically.”

She said some items can be addressed immediately, while others will require more time, but the objective is to address the problem systemically.