This website is dedicated to the events which surrounded Vivian Knowles and Beverly Langleys loss of residence.

The following is a short summary of the event that destroyed their home. You will be able to read the full story from their points of view on their journals pages. You can also read the legal document which serves as the offical statement from the town of Hampden.

I'll let you decide what you think.

On April 14th, 2004 around 8:00 AM the town of Hampden, Maine was performing a routine flush of their sewage system. The reason for this maintenance is that some of the pipes in Hampden were installed before 1980 and were made of clay and (in their words) are subject to infiltration. The flush is intended to be a proactive solution to preventing environmental hazards or overflows into adjoining rivers or streams.

Unfortunatly the clay pipes just past the home located at 5 Patterson Street had already been infiltrated. When the flush began the jet of water hit a cluster of roots that had grown through the street sewage line. This caused the water to push back on itself and find the quickest way out of the tunnel.

This direction out was through the outspouts of the showers, sinks and toilets of the home.

*One of the truly sad facts about this situation was that the house had just been built and was occupied only 13 days prior to the flood. Vivian and Beverly hadn't even had time to unpack all of their boxes. (Which they had placed in the basement and were emptying one at a time when Beverly wasn't at work.)

Vivian Knowles who was 90 at the time was home alone. Her daughter Beverly an Art teacher was at school in her first class. Vivian heard a strange gurgling noise coming from the other room, assuming it was her dog getting sick she went to investigate and found the horrible backed up sewage. She could see it pouring down the basement stairs and opened the door to go downstairs to turn the water valve off. She then saw that the effluence was heading toward the furnace and grabbed a broom to try and keep the liquid from the fixture. She also grabbed a phone in order to call Beverly for help.