Experts were confident that Tempe Town Lake dam would last for 25 to 30 years. The rubber blow-up dam containing Tempe Town Lake is a centerpiece of the Tempe, Arizona tourist trade. But one wonders what Tempe thinks about one of the 11-year-old dam pillows having blown, as the Associated Press reports. Two-thirds to three-fourths of Tempe Town Lake will flood the dry riverbed of Salt River, which happens to be an area where some of Tempe’s homeless tend to sleep during the summer.
No injuries reported after Tempe Town Lake explosion
No injuries of property damage at Tempe Town Lake has been reported as yet, as outlined by local media sources. Loud noises and trembling clued in individuals near the scene of the exploding dam. A couple of second after that, animals began to flee. Not long after that, an emergency siren split the night air. Reports as to whether any potential transients within the Salt River bed heard the siren are currently inconclusive.
One billion gallons, flowing out at 15,000 cubic feet per second
That’s the flow at Tempe Town Lake, says Mayor Hugh Hallman. City officials evidently knew back in 2007 that Tempe’s hot, dry climate was taking its toll on the rubber dam. In spite of this, no repairs were undertaken. By April 2009, the makers of Tempe Town Lake dam made a safety recommendation, but Tempe chose to ignore the warning.
Is this about washing Tempe’s homeless away?
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 be the cost of homelessness makes this affair something entirely more fiscal in nature. A wide array of experts have founded studies that show the U.S. shells out nearly $ 11 billion annually to address chronic homelessness. As outlined by Forbes magazine, the annual expenditure would decrease to just under $ 8 billion if the homeless all had subsidized housing.
Low-cost housing is the life raft
Tempe’s home country of Maricopa County has 8,000 homeless individuals 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 expenditures 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.
More details on this topic
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
