“In a major rain event, you could see that weir failing,” Mandeville Public Works Director David deGeneres said last March, referring to the derelict dam holding back a 2,000-foot retention pond from pouring into Mandeville’s Golden Glen neighborhood.

As fate would have it, last week the residents of Mandeville witnessed what officials called a 100-year rain event that dumped almost 7 inches of rain in one hour.

This caused a massive surge of water to begin rushing over and under the cement weir completely hollowing out its underside while sending speeding waters over the dam taking out several trees and eroding the land holding up one of the walls. The wall has begun to crumble, and now noticeable gaps exist between the land and weir that are more than 6 feet deep and funnel under the dam.

An orange barrier now serves to keep children off the collapsing weir that now, thanks to last week'€™s rains, boasts a crumbing sidewall and gaping holes 6 feet deep. (Staff Photo by Chad Ruiz)

“If a child falls in their especially if it’s raining, they’re not coming out,” Mayor Eddie Price said.

This new development only adds to the ongoing dilapidation the weir has undergone for several years.

The 30-foot wide structure sits at the base of Parc du Lac’s retention pond. When it rains, waters from surrounding neighborhoods, Tanglewood, Cherry Creek, Greenleaves and Lakewood Heights flow into the retention pond, eventually reaching the cement dam where the water should gently flow through the V-notched channel atop the weir, into the maze of ditches running through Golden Glen, and ultimately emptying into Bayou Chinchuba.

But the large V-notched channel caved in some time ago leaving a gaping hole that children played in before parish officials filled the hole with cement debris. Since that time, according to an evaluation done by a city-hired diver, water steadily hollowed out the foundation of the dam, leaving an enormous empty chamber under the structure.

“The diver said he could actually stand up and walk around under the weir,” Price said.

To make matters worse, large cement culverts, created as part of the construction on U.S. Highway 190 to drain Greenleaves and surrounding areas into the pond, are planned to open next week, sending more water Golden Glen’s way.

“I got a phone call from someone who talked to Boh Brothers, and they said when they lift the sheaths blocking the culverts, a big wave of water will come through the area,” Peggy Riecke on Shaunell Drive in Golden Glen said.

Fearing another rush of water would send the weir into complete failure and flood the homes of one of Mandeville’s oldest neighborhoods, Riecke filed a letter to parish and city officials highlighting the dangerous predicament in Golden Glen subdivision.

But parish and city officials were already aware of the problem and were making headway into getting the land the weir occupies dedicated to the parish at which point a joint effort would be made with the city to rectify the situation.

That was before last week’s pummeling of rain.

Because of the concerns voiced by residents on both sides of the weir, Parish Councilman Henry Billiot said Thursday the parish has taken the initiative and will send personnel from Public Works to make emergency repairs with the hope of stabilizing the structure until the parish can fully take control of the land.

Billiot said the emergency repairs will take place as early as this weekend.