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The Big Storm: Did your home suffer any damage? (provide details in comments)

Submitted by Chris Casey on Wed, 05/14/2008 - 10:35am.
Yes, some water in the basement
18% (2 votes)
Yes, lots of water in the basement
9% (1 vote)
Yes, other damage (wind, roof, siding, fallen trees)
9% (1 vote)
No, we weathered the storm without a scratch.
64% (7 votes)
Total votes: 11
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Basement Water Battle
Submitted by Chris Casey on Wed, 05/14/2008 - 10:49am.

On Friday and Sunday both, I had to closely monitor one of our basement window wells into which water will pool up, pushed up from the ground, when the ground is particularly saturated. But Sunday's storm also forced in some water seepage along the floor line of one wall in our basement, and that is something we've only seen happen a couple of times in the last 18 years. It wasn't a deluge, just a slow and steady seepage that required fighting back with a wet vac every 20 minutes all through the night to keep the upper hand on it.

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water in basement
Submitted by terrytallent1 on Thu, 05/15/2008 - 4:37pm.

For only the 2nd time in 30 years water seeped into the basement. I believe this was caused by the foundation cracking when Quantico was conducting a live fire exercise with bombs and the ground shook. I know the problem years ago was from a tree root and I had the tree dug out and the foundation resealed. I am not even sure where the main crack is located or if there are several cracks. Lucky for us in the way the carpet and pad are 20 years old and due to be replaced but I will not be putting down new carpet until I get the foundation resealed. We needed an excuse to clean up the basement but I would rather not be doing it with wet stinky carboard, carpet and padding to put out with the trash. The trashman hauled off over one third of the mess today and will get at least another third on Monday. Guess I will be looking at some alternatives like a sump pump before I spring for new carpet.

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20 Docks & 4 Boats Damaged or Lost on The Island
Submitted by TheIslandTimes on Sat, 08/02/2008 - 3:20pm.

A visual survey of The Island, conducted on May 12, indicated 20 docks and 4 boats had been damaged, displaced or are missing as the result of the excessively high water level of Lake Montclair on the night of May 11 and morning of May 12. These damaged Island docks and boats are in addition to the multitude of docks and boats damaged throughout Montclair.

It is Armstrong Management’s position that they merely act as agent for MPOA and Armstrong’s personnel “followed the EAP (Emergency Action Plan)” and that “This was completely unexpected. No one anticipated this much rainfall. The weather service did not forecast it to be like this. The forecast was for ½” – 1” of rain. It’s not our policy to lower the lake unless rainfall is over 2 inches.” A summary weather forecast from NOAA (a detailed and certified copy of the forecast may be obtained by calling the National Climatic Data Center at (828) 271-4800) indicated that repeated warnings of excessive rain fall, flood watch, and flood warnings were issued in a timely manner that provided adequate time for Armstrong Management to lower the lake level so as to prevent this unnecessary and costly damage to these docks, which are considered common area.

I suggest that Armstrong Management did not act in the best interest of the MPOA or the residents of Montclair. Armstrong personnel were irresponsible in their monitoring of weather conditions, and derelict in their actions to prevent the economic disaster that occurred.

In this time of economic upheaval and a continued decline in housing sales and prices, it is imperative that the MPOA Board take all steps necessary to insure that the lake community of Montclair continue to offer the amenities and atmosphere associated with neighborhoods of Montclair’s significance and prestige. I urge the Board to take steps to apply all remedies available to them to formulate and implement an expeditious program to repair and/or replace docks and boats damaged or destroyed by the blatant negligence of Armstrong Management personnel.

Additionally, I urge the Board to review Montclair’s relationship with Armstrong, so as to determine if Armstrong Management’s performance of their duties truly exhibit actions consistent with a desire to act in the best interest of MPOA and the homeowners in Montclair in the promotion and achievement of the most positive of goals for the stability, security, and marketability of the lake community of Montclair.

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montclairion article - dam issue
Submitted by thebyrd on Mon, 08/04/2008 - 1:48am.

that is definitely a different point of view of the actions that took place by the Armstrong Management. I think I accidentally read the montclairion article where the Armstrong Management was made out to be a Knight in Shining Armor up on a White Steed that stayed up all night long monitoring the dam single handedly making sure that the emergency action plan was followed to a T. This just goes to prove there are 2 sides to every story. Good luck at getting Armstrong Management to ever admit that they don't have all the answers or that they could have done something better. It is painful to be in a meeting with a representative present that gets asked about an incident. They are to be highly commended on their loyalty to Armstrong. I have yet to see anyone take blame for dropping the ball.. it is always the fault of someone else. (my favorite is the one about the previous management company didn't keep any records) The last meeting I had attended was for Safety and Security and during a lull we were speaking about violations and the Armstrong Representative admitted to not knowing that Southlake Landing folks had their front lawns cut by their landscaping company as part of their HOA dues, even after the Armstrong Representative had worked in the community for 3 years. It's not like Armstong has a whole heck of a lot of people working in that building. You would think that some information would get around and maybe some training. I would just like to hear that Armstrong would admit to having some short-comings and that they have taken steps to correct those to avoid them happening in the future. (I'm also still bitter about being lied to when Armstrong took over the contract, directly from the General Managers mouth at a budget meeting presentation, so you'll have to take my rants with a grain of salt.)

Good luck with your efforts to prevent future damage to home owner property. It would be nice to have something in writing that could make the management company actually accountable for protecting the home owner assets.

Worst case scenario... a review of the emergeny action plan with a qualified individual to provide consulting on ways to prevent future damages with regards to the lake.

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