Having grown up on Highland Avenue & living most of my life in the ville I've seen the floodwall gate up many times over the years. Yesterday was the first time I ever saw it being put up. I never realized what a labor intensive effort that "exercise" is to accomplish. It is all done manually. You really can't realize the work, the hard labor and shear strength it takes to fully appreciate what these men do when flood waters threaten the ville, until you see it done.
The gate is a jig saw puzzle of a metal frame, wooden beams, blocks, planks, tarps and sand bags. Each piece is hand carried from storage, laid out and put in place by shear will power. Yesterday that was accomplished by members of the Wellsville Volunteer Fire Dept., members of the Village Fire Dept. along with help from our friends and neighbors of the Highlandtown Fire Dept. Not one of those pieces are considered light weight. A retired volunteer estimated just one of those 8X8" wooden beams weigh in the area of 300 - 400 pounds.
Our floodwall is over 70 years old now and still is considered a vital part to preserving millions of dollars of our infrastructure. One can only imagine how much would have been lost and destroyed over the years if it weren't in place. Fire Chief Bill Smith has been working for some time now to get the pumps refurbished or replaced. Yesterday it was discovered that some of the metal plates that hold the gate in place are getting seriously corroded. Those plates are below the street surface and have been there since the floodwall was built. Yesterday they were able to cautiously work around it but it is an unsafe condition. It not only threatens the integrity of the gate itself, it's a serious hazard to the men working around it. Rick Oleniacz from the Army Corp of Engineers had several suggestions to upgrade and improve our floodwall system. Lets hope those suggestions don't fall on deaf ears in Washington.
Pictured above is shots of the different steps taken to erect the floodwall gate. The first picture is what it looks like after all the work is done. While the tarps were unfolded it was decided to hose them off. Some of the fire fighters got hosed down too. With that hot sun I bet that water felt good. You can click on any of the pictures to enlarge them.
Yesterday was a training exercise. Hopefully the next time it's erected it'll be another training session. Thanks to Bishop Rutter and the members of New Life Worship Center for breakfast and a special thanks to all the fire fighters that took part yesterday. You folks are special.
ole nib
1 comment:
Thanks for the great pics Nib. I too grew up on the other side of the flood wall (Wells Ave). We are so lucky to have such dedicated firemen willing to give of their time to practice putting the wall up. Lets hope the next time the wall goes up it is a practice too.
Post a Comment