After several days of flooding at Forest Park Mobile Home Community, the owners of the property told Kosciusko County Emergency Management Director Ed Rock that they’re going to look at the problem today.

“Within the last hour, I’ve talked to the special projects manager of (Forest Park). They’re going to be looking today at how to sandbag it and then pump the water out,” Rock said at about 9:30 a.m.

While no mobile homes have been flooded, roads in the park have become impassable for some residents.

An Indiana State Department of Health website lists the owner of the mobile home park at 3300 E. Old Colony Road, Warsaw, as Forest Park MHC LLC, Brian Smith, 120 W. Lexington Ave., Elkhart. Calls to Smith and property manager Julie Martinez Thursday afternoon and this morning went to voicemail and were not returned.

The park is behind Carson’s on the city’s east side and has 179 mobile homes.

Rock also briefly met with the Indiana State Department of Health mobile home inspector Thursday.

“He was concerned with the process and what’s happening out there. He’s concerned with the safety of it,” Rock said.

Warsaw Mayor Joe Thallemer said, “Certainly we’re concerned about it from an emergency access standpoint, if we can get back there.”

He said the police and fire departments have discussed it and what to do if there’s some emergency back there. They have plans in place. He said it’s private property with a private road that was built on a swamp.

“The planning department has tried to work with the developer to try and improve it. There’s not much we can do but push for improvements,” Thallemer said.

“There’s no way in and out of Forest Park except that under-engineered private road. There’s no possibility of any access except for that private road. That limits you.”

Warsaw-Wayne Fire Territory Chief Mike Wilson happened to be out at Forest Park at about 10 a.m. today.

“The roadway is sound so there’s no problem getting (fire) trucks in and out. The water is receding, it looks like it dropped a foot since yesterday. I will continue to monitor the roadways so we can make sure the trucks can get in and out,” Wilson said, adding that if there is a medical emergency, vehicles will still be able to get back there.



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“The problem is with small cars. We’ve been telling people that for their safety not to drive through standing water,” Wilson said.

He said the water hasn’t reached up to the trailers, and his initial concern was water getting to the electrical lines.

“We will drive through every hour so if people have a concern they can talk to us. We do care about the people at Forest Park. Call 911 if there is an emergency and we’ll get the crew out to you right away,” Wilson said.

For the residents, the last couple of days have been frustrating.

Christina Evansky couldn’t go to her two jobs Wednesday and Thursday because of the flooding and today wasn’t looking promising either. She called Thallemer who told her if she needed to be evacuated, the city would do that.

“I know it’s frustrating,” Thallemer said, adding that so far the city has not received any requests for evacuation out of Forest Park or any emergency requests. “If there are, we’ll take care of those.”

April Williamson’s 7-year-old son has Type I diabetes and she has Lupus and is afraid one of them will have a medical emergency and not be able to get the help because of the flood waters. She’s had to take her son to the hospital before when his sugar has read too high.

“Food is essential to him. I have to have food and special food. The pharmacy doesn’t deliver. I’m getting down to the nitty gritty. I need to go grocery shopping, but I can’t carry all of that,” she said.

The Indiana State Department of Health website lists Forest Park as having 179 homes. Evansky said about 10 are on the edge of the floodwaters and can still get in and out of the park.

There’s two large flooded areas in Forest Park. The first can be driven around by going on some of the lawn. The second, larger body of water, about 100 yards further in, is more massive and deeper, Williamson said. “It stretches all the way to the curb. It’s so deep,” she said Thursday night.

Evansky put on her water boots and took a measuring stick down to the second flood water a little after 3 p.m. Thursday. She only made it in about 10 feet before her boots were full and the water was 24 inches deep, she said. Wilson said the part of the road next to the wetlands is sloped so that is a possibility.

Evansky’s PT Cruiser has a clearance of 9 inches, while her wife Chris’s truck clears 11 inches. Christina had to take Chris down to the flood Thursday morning so she could walk around it and have a friend pick her up.

“(Flooding) has happened before, but not ever this bad. They sandbagged it a couple of years ago, but then they removed the sandbags,” Evansky said. “It’s crazy, but no one is accountable.”

The sandbags were being stored behind a building instead of along the road which is now flooded, and Evansky has a photo of them stacked among weeds and miscellaneous trailer parts.

She has lived in the MHC for seven years, and while the flooding has been bad before, she said the water spillover hasn’t gone as far as it has this year.

“How many people are risking thousands of dollars worth of damage to their vehicles trying to go to work? Or how many of us are losing wages by no fault of our own? And they are having the kids walk behind people’s homes, through mud, to meet the school bus on the other side. How many people are stuck on this side without meds or food?” she asked via messenger.

“Our lot rent goes up every year,” Evansky said during the telephone conversation, but she said she didn’t know what that money was being used for because it wasn’t being used to stop the flooding problem.

Williamson said her son has difficulty walking anyway, but now with the flood waters he has to walk from the back of Forest Park to the front. And along with the high water, all the grassy areas are mud.

“It is difficult for my son. Walking alone is difficult for him,” she said. If something were to happen to him during his long walk to catch the school bus and she wasn’t there, “I’m in back so I don’t know how I would get aid to him.”

Warsaw Community Schools Chief Academic Officer David Robertson said the elementary school buses got through Wednesday, though the high school bus did not. A couple of cars were stalled in the flood waters, but the fire department was able to move them.

Because flood waters continued to rise through Thursday, the WCS Transportation Department moved its stop to the front of Forest Park where it will remain until waters recede, WCS Superintendent Dr. David Hoffert said. There are paths to walk toward the front and school officials will help kids get there if needed. He hopes the waters will recede by Monday to get the bus back there.

Williamson said the flooding was worse Thursday than before and was contemplating keeping her two kids from school today. “It’s bad out here. It’s so bad,” Williamson said. “Since they closed our road down here, school buses are not allowed to come back here but it’s literally a lake.”

Hoffert said since the MHC has only one entrance and exit, “We’ll get the bus in as far back as is safe with flooding.” School officials met Wednesday with police and fire department officials to make sure the bus could get as far back into the park as was safe. “We’ll go as far back as we can, but the bus has to be able to turn around. ... We’re not going to send someone in when it’s not safe.”

Administrators like Jefferson Principal Kyle Carter and Robertson went back into the MHC to help walk students to the front of the park to get on the bus.

Hoffert said the school corporation always stays in communication with the fire and police departments.

“Forest Park is always a challenge,” he said, but the problem wasn’t so widespread that school needed to be canceled Wednesday. He said WCS has about 100 students who live in Forest Park.

Williamson has lived in the mobile home community for about 8-1/2 years and said flooding has happened before, and while the owners didn’t “do anything with that either,” it wasn’t as bad as this year. In the winter, when the snow piles up, Williamson said they don’t plow or salt the roads then either.

“The lot rent goes up, and they say it’s due to repairs and keeping things tidy, but in the eight years I’ve lived here, I’ve never seen anything done,” Williamson said. “They definitely need a new manager out here. Someone who cares and is not just doing it for the money.”