Liquid Assets in Waltham

Ms. Flanagan, my thoughts are with you today.

For those who do not know Ms. Flanagan, she is the Berkley St homeowner who is, well, not living in her home because the home moved...yes moved...about a foot, so the FOX news folks tell me, OFF its foundation.

Why did it move? Seems, 'though I am no engineer, it "trolleyed" off its cement track because of the recent storms that brought oodles of rain, followed by doodles of more rain a few days later (actually yesterday).

I cannot say how rain can "push a house", but I am reminded of the earthquake term, LIQUIFICATION. This is where the ground, normally harder that a sixty-year-old coot over dosing on Viagra, gets pushed, cajoled and shaken enough so that is gets soft (like the coot after his 2 minutes as Lord Lochinvar, or George Clooney). It may well be akin to when you kick a hard clump of dirt and it breaks up in to a gazillion little pieces. In that state of being, the soil no longer can hold the man-made edifice upon it and things shift, or fall down as the case may be. In Ms. Flanagan's case, water may have softened by the whole thing and, the rest is "moving".

The news reports that the Flanagan home is not in a flood zone (I know the street) and I would agree from my unprofessional view, but I would also conjecture that the forensics of the situation will point to GROUNDWATER issues, and that would not be covered anyway.

At all rates, my heart goes out to them and I wish them well. I would hope there will be no tears shed -- there has been wnought water...