Residents in the Gibson Flats area continue to fight standing water after fields and homes were flooded last week.
The residents said they do not know who is responsible for the water.
Resident Ron Erpelding said he tried to fix a broken pipe after water started to flow out of it.
“I got some basketballs and stuffed it down the hole. I did it a couple of times and it didn’t hold. Finally the third time it did hold,” Erpelding said.
Erpelding said someone hit the pipe in February and he assumed it would be fixed. When Erpelding inquired about who was responsible to fix the pipe, no one took responsibility.
“By Tuesday night it went over. At three in the morning, the dogs woke me up. I tried to go back to sleep. I went out here to check on the cattle and the baby calves, they were already waist deep,” Erpelding said.
Erpelding said he loaded the cattle and calves on to his trailer, but couldn’t see his sheep and thought he had lost them.
“They were all huddled and they were up to their chest in water, of course the water is ice cold. When I finally started pulling them out, their legs wouldn’t even work,” he said.
Erpelding’s fields are flooded so friends and neighbors are watching some of his animals. He had to lease a pasture for the others.
He has lived in Gibson Flats since 2000 and said he has never seen flooding like that before.
“It’s frustrating for a lot of people here. This has never happened before so they could have prepared for something if they could have known it was going to come like this,” Erpelding said.
Erpelding added the water needs to drain through one culvert so it will be awhile before the water is gone.
Gibson Flats residents fighting floodwaters
Reporting by Margaret DeMarco for MTN News
