Homes near Sandy River still in danger year after flood

NEAR ZIGZAG, Ore. - A year after the flood that wiped out Lolo Pass Road along the Sandy River, homeowners say they're still in trouble.

Outside Anna and Wally Green's home the Sandy River rages, and the flood of 2011 still threatens their home of 33 years.

"This one was a shocker," says Anna. "The flood in '96 was nothing like this was last year – nothing like it."

Since then the Greens and their neighbors have been losing ground between their houses and the unpredictable Sandy River.

"Even when it's just flowing normally, we're losing ground every day," Anna says.

Relatively minor rains in December sent water right toward the Greens. Local students sandbagged to keep back as much water as possible. But it's not a permanent solution.

"We have lost so much property out there – which is fine that's what nature does, but we would like to stabilize it so it stays there," Anna says.

Downstream, Barb Gearhardt's deck is now just a few feet from the eroding river bank.

"There's nothing we can do but sit here and wait and hope," she says.

Gearhardt already removed a huge part of her deck but the river continues to move closer.

"I only have 25 feet from my house to the edge (of the river)," she says.

It used to be 75 feet.

Gearhardt's insurance company made it clear her flood insurance will only cover her losses if the water comes inside her house.

"(But) if it all falls into the river, I am not covered at all," she says.

Clackamas County Emergency Management employees have been working with FEMA and other federal agencies to find solutions. But the geology of the area makes the situation even more perilous.

State maps of the Sandy River show the water's path has changed repeatedly and drastically since Mount Hood erupted two centuries ago.

"If you go back and look through that area, there's historic channels that have just been occupied and re-occupied over and over again, because the river is so dynamic up there," says Jay Wilson, with Clackamas County Emergency Management.

The maps show dozens of homes were built on top of the volcanic flows where the ground is made up of loose sand and gravel and is very unstable.

Taking that into consideration, there are a lot of homes in danger.

"Yeah, and there's really not a lot you can do if the river decides it's going to have a flood," Wilson says.

Homeowners say permits are expensive and impossible to get because no one, neither Clackamas County nor the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, will approve their plans.

"It's ridiculous," says Gearhardt. "Us homeowners need the help. We need them to work with us, not against us."

Those who have done work did it with their own money and without a permit. Millions of Federal Emergency Management Act money that came in went only to county projects, not to homeowners.

"We have no money from FEMA, not a dime," Anna Green says.

According to Clackamas County, new FEMA rules only allow spending for public projects like a sewage treatment facility and for Lolo Pass Road.

Meanwhile, the people who live on this part of the Sandy feel like they are in more danger each day.

"Getting no help whatsoever, and we are getting the runaround on top of it," says Gearhardt.

"This has been really scary," Green says. "We've been holding our breath for months – every time it rains."

Many homeowners say they feel like the new Lolo Pass Road helped change the course of the river as well and has caused some of the danger they face now. The county disputes that, stating the river flows are simply impossible to control.

The county says it is working on studies right now to see what it would take to protect the banks from eroding closer to the homes. But it too is waiting for approval from the Army Corps of Engineers.

Some of the FEMA money is being used to buy properties where homes were wiped out in the flood.

The county hopes to use that land to help lower the flood dangers downstream. But that work too faces federal approval before any work can start.