Bridge collapse leaves residents isolated, emergency access hindered
FRANKLIN COUNTY, Mo. – The only road into a small subdivision of about 27 Franklin County homes was washed out by rain and flooding last week.
Gerald Johnson, who lives in the first home on the other side of the Harvester Road Bridge, told us, “At about three o’clock in the morning, we woke up and there was water running through our yard.”
That was July 3, when he walked further out in his yard to see the bridge connecting him to the outside world—gone.
“If the fire department is needing an emergency vehicle or something back here, they can’t get to us,” Johnson added.
The Boles Fire Protection District has been finding other ways to get into the subdivision.
“We’ve got plans to be able to get in there for EMS, but if it’s a larger incident, that’s where we’re going to have the issue,” Chief Jim Casey said.
There’s a bypass where it’s possible to drive through the creek, but the fire department’s pumper truck won’t get through the area.
Chief Casey said, “There’s a couple other routes we can use by UTV’s to get in, but it’s just that, again, it gets back to the large apparatus.”
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The fire department says a brush truck could get through the bypass, but that it would take about 15 brush trucks to equal the water capacity of one pumper.
“If we get a lot of the rain, tonight or tomorrow, that they’re talking about coming in, that could be too deep for us to make access, so we would have to use the other accesses that we’ve got for UTV’s to get into the back of the subdivision,” the chief added.
If the fire department has to resort to its utility terrain vehicles, it could take as many as 38 UTV’s to equal the water capacity of one pumper.
Neither the fire department, nor Franklin County government can do anything about the needed repairs. That’s because it’s not a public road, rather it’s the responsibility of the homeowners through their homeowner’s association.
Richard Burkett and his son, Jayse, say they can only come and go by walking across. Richard says his car won’t make it through.
“To get to work I’ve been having people pick me up and my mom has an SUV so she’s taking me. Other than that, I’m not leaving,” he explained. “Eventually I’m going to have to get groceries and stuff like that and they don’t seem to be doing anything.”
Chief Casey says he’s heard the association may make temporary repairs by the end of the week.
“The sooner, the better,” he said. “It’s for the safety of all the residents in here; it’s just not for our convenience, it’s for their safety.”
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