The Tempe Town Lake dam was supposed to last for 25 to 30 years, said the experts. The inflatable rubber dam created Town Lake for the city of Tempe, Arizona, a tourist destination and point of civic pride for residents. 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 following Tempe Town Lake blowup
Reports indicate the spontaneous explosion of the 16-foot-high section of the Tempe Town Lake dam caused no injuries, and also the water has placed no structures in urgent danger. There was a loud boom and ground tremors within the area of the Arizona State University campus, as outlined by on-the-scene witnesses. Not long after the rumble, animals broke into a run out of there. Not long after that, an emergency siren split the night air. Whether transients camping within the Salt River bed heard the alarms is unknown.
One billion gallons out of Tempe Town
That’s the flow at Tempe Town Lake, says Mayor Hugh Hallman. It was reportedly known three years ago that Tempe’s weather patterns were wearing away at the rubber. Yet repair action was not taken at that time. By April 2009, the makers of Tempe Town Lake dam made a safety recommendation, but Tempe chose to ignore the warning.
What about the homeless?
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. Most consider this event exploded rubber and government impotency. Yet it could be 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. According to Forbes magazine, the annual expenditure would decrease to just under $ 8 billion if the homeless all had subsidized housing.
Give them homes or they’ll drown
Tempe’s home country of Maricopa County has 8,000 homeless individuals daily, reports AZCentral.com. If those 8,000 individuals – only some of whom may live in the Salt River area near Tempe Town Lake – had homes, not only would the nation be saving money, but Maricopa County would reportedly conserve as much as 50 percent on emergency resources. Tempe Town Lake doesn’t sound like a homeless story at first, but the disaster could produce something truly positive for those needing opportunity.
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
