Mine shaft ejects wall of water onto Colorado home, swamps basement
For 30 years Brent Weakley and his family have enjoyed spending time at their home east of Breckenridge as an escape from everything else. They've known about the mine shaft in the backyard since they moved in, and they've never had any issues with the trickle of water that runs from it.
Until now.
Weakley was thankfully nearby when a massive amount of water started to gush out of the side of the mountain, took out a popular hiking trail, and came right for their home.
"We were successful in diverting a third to half of the water flow," Weakley said. "Until it was just too dark and too cold, we had been wading in water for four hours."
Red White and Blue Fire, Summit County Road and Bridge, Summit County Emergency Management, Summit County Open Space and Summit County Building Department all came to help out, considering the nearby road also was starting to catch the water. Firefighters helped to get railroad ties placed to divert the water. Still, the damage was done; the basement was full of water.
So how did this even happen? What causes a mine to start gushing water when it's been a trickle for decades? A possible explanation can be a freeze-and-thaw cycle inside the shaft, as well as ventilation being clogged, or even a collapse suddenly squeezing water out where there used to be space.
Now Weakley hopes others can learn from his painful experience before it happens to them, making sure homeowners keep track of what's lying in wait in their backyards.
"This was a lesson to not only us but the whole county," Weakly said. "There are 3,000+ mines in the area that are not being cared for, a lot of those houses have been built on those mining claims."
"This house has been here for 50 years and nothing has happened so you don't expect it to when the water is always running at the same rate, and then all of the sudden it changes it is pretty scary... but I would say that people should think about where that water is going to go if it is going to come out and try to mitigate that risk. "
