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Hurricane Irene Rain Makes High School $5.4 M Loucks Field Unplayable
Posted on Monday, September 05 @ 23:52:19 EDT by jfbailey
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WPCNR PRESS BOX. By John F. Bailey. September 6, 2011 :
The six inches of rain Hurricane Irene dumped on White Plains August 27-28 ending 8 days ago, has made 30 yards of the southend of the Loucks Field at White Plains High School unplayable eight days later.
Loucks Field Looking to South Goal Sunday afternoon. Wrinkles heaving up have made surface unplayable.
District has Closed the Turf portion of the field to the public.
Sunday, bunched up “wrinkles” averaging an inch and a half to 2 inches in height in the middle of the field south turf were observed by this reporter. The high stepping wrinkles could cause players to trip in game action. The field showed evidence of saturation Sunday and again this morning.
Wrinkles up to half a finger’s height exist as of Labor Day morning.
A sign was placed at the field declaring the field unusable to the public Sunday. However unauthorized play was being conducted on the field on 50 yards of the north end of the field.
From Saturday, August 27 through Sunday August 28, Hurricane Irene resulted in 6.12 inches of rain according to the Westchester County Airport observations.
On Monday, Labor Day, the wrinkles had not diminished eight days after the rains had stopped.
The high school football team which normally practices on the Loucks playing surface was using the natural grass fields for their Monday morning practice.
The field opened three years ago, and this is the first instance of “wrinkle” damage happening on the field.
Loucks Leaks for first time, August,2009.
WPCNR NEWS ARCHIVE FILE PHOTO
There were drainage issues when the field first opened from stormwater spilling out onto the track from under the bleachers.
To read about the repairs the school district made during that flooding which occurred in July-August, 2009, go to http://www.whiteplainscnr.com/article7555.html
However, a field built by Landtek, the installers of Loucks Field, developed wrinkles in April of this year at a field in Ridgewood, New Jersey.
This happened 5 months ago April 11, due to a rain event causing the Ho-Ho-Kus Brook to flood the field.
News reports on the Ridgewood field event did not give a cause for the wrinkles,whether it was rising watertable or absorption from the surface flooding. To be fair the flooding of the Ho-Ho-Kus Brook was the worst in 56 years. However the White Plains storm resulted in only 6 inches of rain.
The Ridgewood News article did report that the wrinkles at the Ridgewood field were going to have to be fixed by the Landtek company.
A later dispatch from the Ridgewood News said that Landtek was paid a minimum of $21,000 to “iron out” the wrinkles in the Ridgewood High Field.
Cause of the wrinkles was not reported, but apparently the field could not hold the rains. The flooding in Ridgewood along the Ho-Ho-Kus Brook was the worst since 1954.
To read about the damage done to the Ridgewood High field, go to: http://ridgewood.patch.com/articles/districts-flooded-fields-cleanup-to-cost-21k-superintendent-initially-forgets-to-disclose-full-cost#photo-5686086
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