Note: The CVPost has arranged with Julian Emerson to feature on our home page the early portion of stories that Emerson has written and posted on his Facebook news page. We will provide a link to those Facebook stories following the opening paragraphs.
By Julian Emerson
What started as a steady drip, drip, drip early Wednesday morning turned into a steady stream of water leaking through the ceiling of the trailer in Maples Mobile Home park Krystal and Kenny Buttke call home.
As a thunderstorm raged in the darkness outside and the downpour fell ever harder, the kitchen floor of the Buttkes’ trailer was soon soaked. Kenny rushed to grab a half dozen plastic containers of different sizes, using them as makeshift water collection basins.
The first container filled quickly. Kenny slid it to the side, placed another in its place, then dumped the full one as another collected water. The spout gushing through the ceiling fell faster.
“I couldn’t believe how fast the water was pouring through there,” Kenny said late Wednesday afternoon, pointing to a large crack and wet, badly stained spot overhead in the trailer’s small kitchen. “For a while there, I didn’t know if I was going to be able to keep up.”
That leak wasn’t the only place water was entering the Buttkes’ trailer. Another in the bedroom at the back of the unit quickly soaked the light in the room, creating an electrical hazard and prompting the Buttkes to abandon that space.
“We didn’t think it was safe to be in there anymore,” Krystal said, noting the wet walls and floor in the bedroom. “I have a feeling this place won’t last much longer. That ceiling is going to cave in.”
The Buttkes’ mobile home is one of many at Maples with badly compromised roofs and ceilings that are cracking, bowing and buckling, situations made worse by a series of recent heavy rains that have further damaged the already weakened structures.
A walk-through of a half dozen units at the park revealed significantly damaged ceilings in each unit that routinely leak water into the homes’ interiors. Several trailers have multiple cracks and holes in ceilings allowing water in.
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Note: the home page photo that accompanies this story was taken by Julian Emerson.