— Last weekend, an overnight deluge did untold amounts of damage to personal and state property.
Unfortunately, it will take much longer to fix all that damage.
Residents faced with cleaning out foul-smelling water from basements, coping with the loss of vehicles destroyed or damaged by flood waters and motorists taking detours to avoid washed-out driveways and roads are exasperated and want help — now.
That’s understandable. These floods have substantially changed many lives.
However, it’s easy to forget the added exasperation the state Department of Highways faces right now.
A long, harsh winter had road crews out working 12-hour shifts day after day. Many of those workers have had few days home with their families and few days off during the past several months.
In all likelihood, many of those DOH workers suffered property damages right along with the rest of us. They have to travel the same roadways we do.
Now, the DOH faces a challenge of massive proportions. In order to get motorists back on safe roads, the DOH has to set priorities, and we, as residents will need to realize damages affecting the greatest numbers of people have to be repaired first.
Main arteries, such as Airport Road, have to be a top priority. Large stretches of highway carved out by flood waters have trapped as many as 100 families in one area of Shady Spring.
Major bridge and road repairs are needed in Fayette County.
DOH administrators and work crews have their work cut out for them.
Like it or not, residents with lesser damage will have to wait.
Blaming the DOH for working too slowly or criticizing their efforts will not get the massive flood clean up done any faster or more efficiently.
We all have to believe the goal of these agencies is get the repairs done. In many cases, there will not be additional manpower to help with the work, and money for the projects won’t magically appear.
And, let’s not forget, crews were already faced with an equally arduous task of fixing all those potholes winter left behind. As soon as the flood damage is repaired, the DOH will still have all those projects to finish.
We need to give the DOH time to meet the demands. We have to believe crews will do as much as they can as quickly as they can. We need to trust them to get the job done and give them a reasonable amount of time to get around to all of us.
