The Tempe Town Lake dam was intended to last for 25 to 30 years, said the experts. A rubber structure, Tempe Town Lake dam created a beautiful natural landmark for the city of Tempe, Arizona. The Associated Press writes that the 11-year-old rubber barrier had a blowout in one section. Thanks to the blowout, Tempe Town Lake will lose thousands of gallons of water (as much as three-quarters of the man-made lake) to the dry bed of the Salt River, where the homeless tend to live during the summer.
Injury wire quiet on Tempe Town Lake
No injuries of property damage at Tempe Town Lake has been reported as yet, according to local media sources. There was a loud boom and ground tremors in the area of the Arizona State University campus, according to on-the-scene witnesses. A couple of second after that, animals started to flee. Not long after that, an emergency siren split the night air. Whether transients camping within the Salt River bed heard the alarms is unknown.
Tempe Town Lake sending water at 15,000 cubic feet per second
That’s the flow at Tempe Town Lake, says Mayor Hugh Hallman. As far back as 2007, experts reportedly knew the Arizona climate was wreaking havoc with the structural integrity of the rubber dam. But nothing was done. By spring 2009, engineers told Tempe that Town Lake dam was in need of instant repair, but the city did nothing.
Wither the people without homes?
The emergency alarm clearly went off, but nobody knows at this early stage just how the homeless fared following the Tempe Town Lake dam disaster. This could all just be mechanical failure and bureaucratic inaction. Yet it could possibly be that the cost of homelessness makes this affair something entirely more fiscal in nature. Various media sources indicate that chronic homelessness costs the United States $ 10.95 billion each year in public funds. Forbes reports that that figure would descend to a more manageable $ 7.88 billion if the homeless were given permanent homes.
Low-cost housing is the life raft
Tempe’s home country of Maricopa County has 8,000 homeless people daily, reports AZCentral.com. If these disadvantaged individuals all of a sudden had residency, taxpayer funds would be saved and Maricopa County would cut their emergency resource expenses nearly in half. If the Tempe Town Lake dam event moves more homeless people into permanent housing, something truly good will result from this minor civic disaster.
Sources
philly.com/philly/wires/ap/news/nation/20100721_ap_rubberizeddambreaksatmanmadearizonalake.html
azcentral.com/community/tempe/articles/2010/06/11/20100611tempe-homeless-outreach-united-way.html
forbes.com/2006/08/25/us-homeless-aid-cx_np_0828oxford.html
