The Birmingham age-herald., 1920-08-22
SEWER OUTLET WAS BLOCKED BY SAND AND CREEK WATER
Kendrick Explains Tester days Street InundatiOn. Storm Drainage Is All
 right - Needs Outlet

Obstruction to the openings of the Birmingham sewer sys- tenn at Valley Creek largely ex- plains the flooding of the main streets of the city yesterday, according to Julian Kendrick, city engineer.
 According to Mir. Kendrick, sand and trash almost closed the mouth of the sewer. Added to this, Valley creek soon rose over the level of the sewers mouth. As result the water from the sewer had to flow out against the pressure of the stream.
 Another explanation is the record downpour which made a demand on the storm sewers that they were not constructed to meet. The records of the weather office showed that such a volume of rain has never fallen in the history of the station and certainly not since the Birmingham sewerage system was installed some twenty five years ago.
 GROUND SOAKED
 The surface of the ground was all ready soaked by continual rains all during the past week As a conse- quence, the ground was not prepared to take up but a small percentage of the enormous fall. MT. Kendrick explains that every time a building or sidewalk is constructed a further demand is made on the sewers. Such areas as lawns and gardens take up many gal Ions of water
 Some of Birmingham's street corners nre regular sink holes, in
 the opinion of the city engineer.
 The water flows from several df-
 rections to this one pofnt. The
 natural result is that, the corner is
 soon submerged If the rain con-
 tinues.
 Mir. Hendricks statement Is as fol- lows:
 Unfortunately, during the early days Of construction work in Birmingham a few of the street crossings were made regular sink holes. as it were The crossings at Fourth avenue and Nine teenth street and Fifth avenue and Twenty-first street are good examples. Consequently when there is a hard rain the water at these corners congregates.
 The proper method of constructing streets is to have one of the streets to fall away from the other. An ex- ample of this is seen at Fourth ave nue and Eighteenth street. where no water accumulates.
 The storm of Saturday was unusual in two respects. It was very heavy and instead of extending over a period of only fifteen or twenty minutes as is usual with such downpours, 1t was di- vided into two distinct periods with a twenty or thirty-minute interval.
 The main storm sewer, which is very large, discharges into Valley creek near the lower end of Smiths park Below the mouth of this sewer large sand beds have been found in the creek, which. even during very dry periods. back the water so that the mouth of the sewer is more than half filled. Consequently it cannot dis charge to its full capacity. A little further down the countys Third avenue bridge spans the creek and tends to still further back the water.
 If the rain had been spread out over a longer period the sewers could easily have disposed of the surplus water. As it was. the sewers were just simply overburdened."
 MT. Kendrick explained that the sewerage system itself is large enough. The remedy, in his opinion, Is to extend the mouth of the sewer down Valley creek. If this is done the mouth of the sewer system can be raised further above the level of the creek and noth- ing will interfere with the free flow of water.