The after effects of the eastern shore flooding
about the weather’ meant talking about very heavy rain — potential effects of hurricanes — and the definite effects of all that water on already saturated ground. 47 abc’s ashonti ford reports on repair efforts on local roadways. we’re working about 12 hours a day with about eight guys track the heavy rains that hit delmarva near the beginning of october not only set records– but also left a number of lasting detours — including parts of the main road between salisbury and snow hill. and where i’m standing right now on route 12 just 2 weeks ago was completely flooded with water and as you can see behind me — there are already people hard at work to fix the problem track the fix — in this case — means replacing three old, 48 inch pipes beneath the road in furnacetown. when those pipes couldn’t handle the rain — the water overflowed and caused the erosion. construction crews are installing a larger pipe – built to handle more water. we’re hoping to have it opened back up by thanksgiving track route 12 is currently closed for a ten mile stretch. but this isn’t the only part of the eastern shore that took a beating. on the maryland-virginia state line — road erosion due to the floods created a huge break in the road on sheephouse road. this particular area is where we had most of the water come through — eroded the sides of the road then it broke through the asphalt and took that away and then the sand and the base for the road got taken away were left with a big hole track folks who live on either side of this dam now are rerouted about 20 minutes — maryland coastal bays says they’re currently trying to work with decision makers to fix this problem — and the dam not only needs to be repaired but the endangered wildlife living in the surrounding pond also needs to somehow be preserved. ashonti ford 47abc maryland coastal bays tells us that their biggest concern outside of fixing roads — is marine life. while some animals were jumping for joy with all the rain – others were completely pushed out of their habitat. big mill pond surrounds the dam on sheephouse road — that recently collapsed due to the early october floods this pond is home to large mouth bass, pickerel, and the endangered mud sun fish .. these fish are endangered because they like to quiet swampy streams like this one and unfortunately — the shore has few of them. it’s a really undisturbed area — so we have many species of plants and animals that we don’t find in a lot of areas and also this is at the northern end of a lot of southern species its important to restore the pond so that those organisms that have evolved and adapted to conditions here can survive for more information on how you can help preserve the wildlife in this area and others around the shore visit our webpage for maryland coastal bays information
