Damages from 2007 man-made quakes still irking Wyo. residents

January 18th, 2010 @ 4:07pm
By John Hollenhorst

ROCK SPRINGS, WYO. -- More than two years after a government project shook them up with a lengthy series of small, deliberate earthquakes, homeowners in southwest Wyoming are getting increasingly irate.
They say their homes are damaged, that it's getting worse and that the government isn't fixing it.
Residents in a neighborhood of Rock Springs, Wyo., have been agitating for government money to fix the damage since 2007.
Although some officials have suggested the problems are exaggerated or caused by something else, residents are hoping this is the year they finally get repair moneyIn 2007, KSL told the story about the people of Rock Springs who were startled one day when the ground suddenly began to move.
Esther Shafe, a local resident, told KSL, "The house, it would jump. And it would also vibrate."
"It bounced my son out of the bed. And my son's, like, 210 [pounds]!" said resident Becky Kelley.
The cause was a pair of enormous weights, about 25 tons each, dropped repeatedly by a crane. It was government action to collapse old coal mines lying under the town of Rock Springs.
Now, government inaction has residents frustrated. Going on three years later, they sent home video to KSL to show damage is getting worse -- things like cracks in walls and ceilings, doors that don't fit any more, foundations buckling, and walls bulging ominously were just some of the effects of the shaking.
Wyoming lawmakers invited for a home tour were surprised at how bad it is.
"This really just tore through here doing some damage," said one Wyoming lawmaker after seeing a local house.
Residents say they've been advised by the Wyoming Attorney General's office not to make repairs until the state does an assessment.
In the meantime, some have settled for quick fixes.
"So you just kind of put putty in a hole or stuff a pillow in a window, whatever we have to do to get by until the next day," said Kelley. Another resident, Karla McAffee, spent $50,000 just to avoid disaster. "We're out of money, and we're just taking care of what has to be done to preserve the house at this point. If we hadn't done it, the house would have fallen in."
Many on the Wyoming Legislature say the inaction is unacceptable. Sen. John Hastert said, "For the people to have to sit and wait, it's not right."
In the past, some officials have argued the pounding was meant to be a good thing, to collapse abandoned mines that damaged homes and caused dangers for decades. And they argued there's no proof the pounding is what damaged the homes.
Still, some lawmakers are vowing to press for action in the upcoming session of the Wyoming Legislature.
E-mail: hollenhorst@ksl.com