Sinkhole in Centex Homes’ Hills of Rivermist Now “Slope Failure”
Call it what you like.
The sinkhole in San Antonio at Hills of Rivermist (area map) continues to shift and is now being labeled a “slope failure.” Call it what you like, but the shifting of the earth in this Centex Homes neighborhood (Pulte now owns Centex Homes – some people have questioned which builder it is), is a shocking thing to wake up to. Homeowners have been displaced on both the top and bottom of the hill (about 80 homes are being said to be affected) as investigators and engineers try to figure out what is caused the gap to spread at a rate of about one inch every fifteen minutes. Many fear several of the homes will slide down the the slope and onto the homes below in the Rivermist subdivision.
Fissures created by the sinkhole are twelve to fifteen feet deep and six to eight feet wide. Pulte Homes has set up a telephone information line at (210) 389-2042 and residents can also call 311 for updates and information. A neighborhood meeting has been scheduled for 6PM today, Monday January 25 at the Drury Inn and Suites at 1604 and IH 10 (map and directions)
Other news sources and information.
mySA – Engineers to evaluate land shift
mySA – Slope failure causes landslide – Photo slideshow by Jerry Lara
Fox 29 – Residents Fear Homes Will Slide – Grace White (Video)
KSAT News – Slope Failure Causes Evacuation
Search Twitter for #sinkhole, #slopefailure, and #sinkholegate.
Feel free to add any sources of stories to the comments below.
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Comments
MAtt: Texas size toboggans. I hope that nobody gets stuck on stupid during this. Hopefully the families recovered their medicines and valuables and no one gets injured trying to recover “stuff”. When something lets go, you can’t stop a house motivated by gravity.
.-= Thomas Johnson´s last blog ..$1,095,000 :: 3307 Bridgeberry Ln, Houston TX, 77082 =-.
Thomas – I hope the same. These sorts of moments can cause a lot of people to stop thinking logically. I’m glad the homeowners were able to collect somethings as I’m sure that’s pretty stressful to not know what’s going to happen day to day. I read a report today that said the one home actually has enough space between the ground and its foundation that you could stand underneath of it.
.-= rerockstar´s last blog ..Sinkhole Opens Up in Centex Homes’ Hills of Rivermist =-.
I don’t know the specific’s, but their are several reason’s for a shift or
slide.1)If fill material was placed over an existing Pond.2)If fill material was not properly compacted. 3)If their is a Spring or underground water leak that would undermind the existing soils creating a slide.
I doubt its a sinkhole,if fill was
dumped in large volumns and has a high plasticity and is of topsoil nature, thats a problem.Find the site or landscape guy
and you probably find out what happened.
MD – The two things I’ve heard most often (in social circles and via the news) is that the fill may no have been done correctly or the retaining wall itself was flawed. Of course they’re still looking into what caused it and exactly what to do to fix it.
They have determined it was not a “sinkhole” by definition, rather a “slope failure.”
Thanks for stopping by and sharing your thoughts.
Did this “Act of God” (i.e. sinkhole, soil shift, slope failure, earthquake, etc.) cause the wall to collapse? Or did the poorly built wall cause the soil to shift (or expansive clay soil to swell)? It seems obvious from the photos alone, but with Centex removing fill dirt and destroying evidence as fast as they can while keeping out independent inspectors & engineers with armed guards, proving the real cause may be difficult.
Our webpage (http://www.homeownersoftexas.org/San-Antonio-Sinkhole.html) continues to grow, with nearly 30 videos now posted.
.-= Wayne Caswell´s last blog ..Licensing =-.
Wayne – Have you seen the recent cracking in other parts of the slope just a little further away from the site where the wall cracked? KSAT just reported on it last night. “Rivermist Residents Worry About New Cracks”
one of the issues with the damage is that most insurance companies will not pay up. There are provisions in their policies that state they are not responsible for soil issues and problems such as this/
the owners need to be on the builder like white on rice. They will continue to procrastinate, delay, deny, and delay. They will hope that some of the homeowners will give up, run out of money or just walk from their mortgage.
Wayne Caswell . this is the modus operandi of the builder.
Centex is no longer owned by centex but pulte.
disenchanted – The owners have been very proactive with the issue and I think they’re definitely in it for the long haul. The idea that dragging it out will cause some people to give up hope is always a worry with anything of this nature.
I’ll continue to bring info as it becomes available.
.-= rerockstar´s last blog ..Centex Hills Of Rivermist – Wall Threat Underplayed? =-.
Our coverage of this story (http://www.homeownersoftexas.org/San-Antonio-Sinkhole.html) now has over 40 of the top video broadcasts and 25 print stories on this story. And our blog (http://homeownersoftexas.blogspot.com/) has our own analysis of the story.
What concerns us most from the hundreds of homeowner cases we’ve seen is the spiral of anxiety and anger of Americans made worse by unresponsive politicians and unregulated industry giants with little to no accountability. The situation can make otherwise good but desperate people do desperate things when they have nothing to lose, and that’s just what happened last week here in Austin. Andrew Joseph Stack III intentionally flew his plane into a building. See Plane Crash: What Makes Someone Do This? (http://www.statesman.com/news/local/plane-crash-what-makes-someone-do-this-261950.html?srcTrk=RTR_240839). Then think of disgruntled and angry homeowners forced from their unsafe homes or about to lose their homes to foreclosure after long-term unemployment and lack of health care.
.-= Wayne Caswell´s last blog ..02/20/10: FOUNDATIONS: San Antonio ground collapse causes sinkhole gets National Attention =-.
To understand the plight of The Hills of Rivermist, look 90 miles north to Hutto, TX. Some 700 homes were built on expansive and contaminated soil and are now plagued with all sorts of foundation-related problems. They have lost so much value that they’re hard to sell at any price, and local realtors have essentially blackballed the communities of HuttoParke and Legends of Hutto, refusing to list or show properties there. Vacant homes and declining property values affect the homeowner association and local tax base that funds kids’ education and public service.
We have several stories about Hutto and expansive soil on our site. Search by keyword or just start with “Home Buyers Beware,” a CBS report on Hutto problems (http://www.homeownersoftexas.org/FOUNDATIONS-Home-Buyers-Beware.html).
.-= Wayne Caswell´s last blog ..02/20/10: FOUNDATIONS: San Antonio ground collapse causes sinkhole gets National Attention =-.
This is very unfortunate. People always think, “This will never happen to me in 1 million years”, but then a few months down the road they find themselves in this sort of situation. I really hope that they can find a way to work out this type of freak accident.
Adrian brings up an important point: People often look at construction defects and think that’s “unfortunate” but it “will never happen to me.”
The problem is that serious defects effect all of us. They decline property values, cause homes to become uninhabitable, cause homeowners to default, lead to more foreclosures, and contribute to a declining spiral in entire neighborhoods, cities, states, and the nation.
Taxpayers are on the hook since we guarantee >80% of ALL home mortgages through FHA, VA, Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, USDA, etc. It’s 96.5% if you only count mortgages that closed this year.
We’ve not yet fixed the artificial incentives that caused the housing bubble and the global recession and instead keep adding to the problems. These incentives include mortgage tax deductions, property tax deductions, government loan guarantees, zero-down loan programs, subsidized interest rates, programs that assist with down payments and closing costs, homebuyer tax credits, construction loan guarantees, and tax loss carry-back programs, to name a few.
Who really benefits from government incentives that promote the American Dream of homeownership? Does the buyer benefit when prices are inflated and they’re encouraged to buy more home than they need?
The real beneficiaries are the biggest builders, lenders and realtors who got special-interest legislation passed to favor themselves over their competitors and consumers.
Wow thats pretty crazy. I have worked for a few pretty big national builders like Pulte and at times when the building industry struggles they can still find a way to be profitable unfortunately many of their cost saving efforts hurt consumers.
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