Wall in Scott City basement collapses from heavy rains

With every drop of rain that fell to the saturated ground around James Dodson's Scott City home, the pressure pushing against his basement walls swelled. That enormous pressure, combined with an aging construction of cinder blocks and brick, led to the collapse of several tons of mud and stone onto his basement floor.

Dodson, 64, was reading on his couch Sunday night during the storm that dropped heavy rainfall across Southeast Missouri. He was startled by a clap of lightning near his home at 2904 James St. The crack of thunder lasted longer than he expected, Dodson said. When it finally subsided, he noticed what sounded and felt like an earthquake beneath his floor.

He went down the basement steps and discovered the western wall had collapsed, hitting his furnace and water heater and causing several pipes to burst.

The ordeal created by an overly soggy spring has weighed heavily on him.

"I'm just disgusted and negative as hell," he said Tuesday.

Scott City Mayor Tim Porch spent part of the day reviewing homes and streets, including a house with 4 feet of water in the basement. He isn't sure what help Dodson or other residents can get.

"It's a real cost factor," he said. "It's going to be a matter of finding help from state or federal agencies."

High pressureThe weight created by water is called hydrostatic pressure. When the ground becomes wet, the pressure multiplies with every foot, making deep mud enormously heavy, said Rich Meyer of Koehler Engineering & Surveying Inc. in Cape Girardeau.

The soil around Dodson's home appeared to contain clay, which would make the pressure on the walls much greater -- possibly 120 to 130 pounds per cubic foot, Meyer said.

"If a basement is not constructed correctly, it'll collapse under the pressure -- that's a given," he said. "What's so bad about this kind of thing is that a usual inspection won't reveal this."

Dodson, a retired truck driver now on disability, bought the home in 1973. He lived there as a single father with his now grown daughter, Kara. He learned from the seller that the basement was a later addition. The basement's double-layer walls were constructed out of cinder blocks on the outside and brick in the inside, with a layer of soil and rock between.

On Tuesday, the house's floor supports were partially held up by jacks. Dodson's nephews had managed to carry out half of the soil and rocks in 5-gallon buckets up the basement stairs. But another two days of lugging the buckets is needed before the wall can be repaired.

Dodson still hasn't told his daughter and son-in-law, who live in North Carolina, about what happened. He doesn't want them to worry about him.

"She'd want to fly right out here," he said. "But they'd have to spend at least a thousand dollars just to get here and get back. And besides, there isn't anything they can do now. We usually talk on the phone Sundays, so I'll tell her then."

Whether he can afford the costs, Dodson isn't sure. His Cape Mutual homeowner's insurance policy will not reimburse him for what has been classified as flood damage, and so he is considering taking out a home equity loan.

"Being hot-tempered and old hasn't hurt my credit any," he said. "I get letters practically every day offering me home loans."

Dodson's insurance agent, Don Sanders, said because the home is not in a flood zone Dodson would not have been asked by the mortgage holder to obtain flood insurance.

"Flood insurance has to be obtained as a separate thing from the National Flood Insurance Program or a federal agency," Sanders said. "It's quite expensive and carries high premiums."

Most homeowner's insurance policies only pay out damages on what they specifically name as perils, said State Farm Insurance agent Bo Shantz of Cape Girardeau.

"A policy does what it says it will do," he said. "A homeowner's policy is designed for most of the things that can happen to you. But it's impossible to cover everything that can happen. If they could, you probably couldn't afford to pay for it."

mwells@semissourian.com

335-6611, extension 160