The Tempe Town Lake dam was designed 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. According to Associated Press reports, nevertheless, one of the 11-year-old dam segments burst. 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. Resource for this article – Tempe Town Lake rubber dam bursts; waters wash away homeless by Personal Money Store.
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, as outlined by on-the-scene witnesses. A couple of second after that, animals began to flee. Minutes later, a safety alarm rang out. Whether transients camping in the Salt River bed heard the alarms is unknown.
Tempe Town Lake holds one billion gallons
That’s the flow at Tempe Town Lake, says Mayor Hugh Hallman. It was reportedly known 3 years ago that Tempe’s weather patterns were wearing away at the rubber. In spite of this, no repairs were undertaken. Two years later, engineers advised Tempe government to act, to no effect.
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. Most consider this incident exploded rubber and government impotency. But if the fiscal angle is taken through the lens of the cost of homelessness, other possibilities emerge. 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
In Maricopa County, where Tempe is located, AZCentral.com reports that there are approximately 8,000 homeless individuals on any given day. Give the disadvantaged the housing they need and Maricopa County would save as much as half of what they at the moment spend on emergency services. Tempe Town Lake doesn’t sound like a homeless story at first, but the disaster could produce something truly positive for those needing opportunity.
More information 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
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