The torrential downpour in January of 2012 caused a lot of headaches for homeowners and businesses in Salem.  I am sure there could be many stories written of instances where the extreme wet weather caused varying degrees of problems.

I was personally aware of a happening where a friend of mine had a good part of their back yard slide down and into the yard of the home below.  This was a steep lot with a lot of fill dirt pushed up to the home in a steep angle. The cause of the slide was a leaky and partially broken water pipe that was out of sight out of mind and no one saw the leak.  As it sprayed out over a portion of the backyard it soaked the ground and combined with the huge rain, gravity and the extreme weight caused the ground to give away.

We know this was an unusual downpour, the home had no problems for almost 30 years and the homeowner was diligent in keeping his home maintained, so it seems like this would never be an event.  This unfortunate combining of a broken water line and almost record breaking rain, led to an unexpected and traumatic happening.

The power of rain especially a torrential downpour gives even more credence to making sure that your home and especially steep areas are well drained into a drainage collector, that gutters are kept from overflowing onto the backyard, drain pipes from the home are flowing clean water where it dumps onto the street.  Dirty water can indicate a broken pipe is dumping water into and saturating the soil.  It is also important to inspect the soil for any sign of ground cracking or shifting.

Kaufman Homes is at your service to help keep you from experiencing such a traumatic event!