A Start but No Closure

Work crews in Westminster began the process Tuesday of demolishing a giant concrete storage tank that ruptured nearly a year ago, sending 5 million gallons of water roaring through a housing complex.

City officials hope the demolition will remove a public safety hazard and provide some closure to residents awakened early Sept. 21 by the wall of water rushing through their Hefley Square Town Homes neighborhood.

Most residents said Tuesday that they were glad to be rid of the tank and its gaping 22-foot-high hole, which has served as a constant reminder of their harrowing experience. But the nightmare, they said, is hardly over.

“It’s been almost a year, and we still don’t have our lives back together,” said Julie Newbury, whose townhouse was flooded. “It’s going to be a long while until there’s going to be closure to this whole mess.”

Indeed, the disaster, later determined to be caused by a structural flaw in the wall of the above-ground tank, will be hard for many--even the city--to put behind them for good.

A once healthy fire captain, swept out of a fire station that the water nearly destroyed, is fighting the sometimes fatal hepatitis C liver disease, which his doctors told him he probably picked up when the severe cuts he suffered mixed with the dirty flood waters.

He was one of six people injured in the deluge.

Several residents have sought psychological counseling to help them deal with the emotional strain caused by the flood and its aftermath.

And the city itself is spending more on the disaster than it does on many municipal departments. The cost, $3 million so far and continuing to rise, has left the city severely strapped for cash. Residents in eight townhomes filed suit against the city earlier this month.

Original estimates put the damage at up to $30 million--equivalent to their annual budget. Money for claims and repairs is coming from insurance carriers, but the city sued them for $8 million to cover the tank as well.

In the days following the flood, Newbury and most of her neighbors who were evacuated were allowed back into their townhouses--only to be forced out a few weeks later after health officials found unacceptably high levels of mold in their homes. The residents were moved to hotels and apartments.

“They told us it was going to be six weeks,” Newbury said. Six weeks stretched into almost four months for many residents--and those in 11 townhouses destroyed by the water are still in temporary housing. Their homes are only now starting to be rebuilt.

Today, Newbury, her husband and their three children are back in their townhome, but the flooding’s consequences continue to plague them in measurable and immeasurable ways, she said.

They lost a safe play area for their children; they underwent counseling because of the emotional toll exacted; the stress made her pregnancy almost unbearable.

They even suffered in small ways: They had to cancel a birthday party for their 6-year-old son; they went without a Christmas tree over the holidays because one would not fit in their tiny temporary apartment.

The birth of her baby daughter several weeks ago was a joyous occasion, Newbury said, but otherwise, “this year has been the most depressing of my life.”

Jenny Gormley, whose townhome also was flooded, says the city has “mismanaged the entire situation,” stretching back 30 years to when the tank was designed and built with a structural flaw. She accused the city of ineptitude for its handling of the aftermath, especially the residents’ problems.

Gormley was among a handful of residents who tried to stop the city from destroying the tank. The group went to court to seek an order blocking the demolition because it could possibly destroy evidence needed in civil lawsuits. A judge refused to halt the demolition.

“If we had a jury stand in front of this hole, they would realize how huge it was and what we went through,” she said.

Fire Captain Craig Campbell was among four firefighters inside the fire station next to the water tank.

The deluge knocked down one of the building’s concrete walls, nearly trapping three firefighters who were sleeping in bunks inside.

Campbell had just put on some coffee when he heard rumbling and went into the garage to investigate. A wall of water struck him full in the chest, sweeping him under a firetruck and through a window at the far end of the station.

He awoke in a park across the street with a compound fracture in his arm, severe lacerations up and down his arms and a nearly severed index finger.

Six weeks later, Campbell was diagnosed with hepatitis C, which his doctors told him he contracted during the flood. Campbell battles the disease today by taking three injections a week of a powerful drug that makes him nauseous.

When he drives by the hulking shell of the storage tank every morning almost a year later, he still gets vivid flashbacks.

“My life I don’t think will ever be the same again,” he said. “You can’t get it out of your head.”

As of a month ago, almost 180 property and liability claims had been filed against Westminster.

As of a month ago, the city had spent more than $3 million in disaster-related expenses. With an annual budget that typically runs about $30 million, funding for other important city programs has been “very tight,” said Jennifer Gaitano, a city spokeswoman.

“It’s a heck of a lot of money,” Gaitano said. “We have whole departments, like parks and recreation, whose budgets are less than $2 million.”

The city received $1.6 million in aid from the Orange County Cities Risk Management Authority, a coalition of 11 cities that pool funds to insure each other. The city also filed an $8 million lawsuit in May against two insurance carriers that refused to pay for demolishing and replacing the tank.

The city is reviewing three possible locations for a new water tank, including the site of a second, identical tank that may have to be demolished. Officials are uncertain if they will repair the second tank off Monroe Street or bring in another replacement.

The Monroe Street tank has been drained to avoid a repeat of the Hefley Street disaster.

Times correspondent Louisa Roug contributed to this report.