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Woman blames busted culvert on FEMA contractor
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BATON ROUGE - A crushed drainage pipe is causing a flooding problem whenever it rains. A homeowner says a truck drove over the culvert in front of her house and smashed the concrete pipe under her driveway.
Shiela Weatherman says it happened when her FEMA Manufactured Housing Unit was removed from her property. It's been two months and she's not sure what to do since her calls to FEMA have not been answered.
As a result of the culvert not being able to drain properly, water fills a drainage ditch and spills over onto her front yard and up her driveway.
"I'm lost for words because I don't know how to get it out other than a pump and it's just sitting," said Weatherman.
Her overflowing ditch is creating a lot of stress. So much, sandbags in front of her doors have become permanent fixtures.
"It comes all the way up into the yard and I'm afraid it's going to come in the house," she said.
Weatherman says she's called FEMA and the City-Parish to look at the situation. She says a FEMA representative has been out to survey the damage but not much has been done.
In the past, FEMA has told 2 On Your Side that the company contracted to do the job is responsible for any remediation when it removes a unit from a property. Weatherman says the cost to repair her culvert is expensive.
A cost that isn't feasible for her at the moment because of the repairs that still need to be made inside her home from the August 2016 flood.
The City-Parish reached out to the private company that delivers FEMA MHU's, to push for a solution for Weatherman. It has not yet received a response. The City-Parish says it will continue to work towards a solution.
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