Team Infidel
Forum Spin Doctor
USA Today
September 18, 2008
Pg. 3
By Travis Reed, Associated Press
ORLANDO -- When residents of several neighborhoods near Orlando International Airport go to bed, they wonder what most homeowners don't: Is there a bomb under my house?
They recently learned their 8-year-old developments were built on a World War II bombing range that wasn't thoroughly cleared. Now they're scared for their lives and investments and angry with developers and local government officials who residents claim shouldn't have allowed the homes in the first place. "This is the only home I have," Esperanza Hernandez says. "Nobody wants to buy a house in this community."
There are hundreds of former bombing and artillery training ranges across the U.S., but few have 2,000 homes sitting on top of them.
Since the Army Corps of Engineers began sweeping the Orlando neighborhoods a year ago, they've found more than 200 munitions.
Most were recovered on the grounds of a middle school, including one lodged beneath the landing pit for the long jump.
The corps says it's extremely unlikely any of the buried munitions would detonate, but that's done little to calm nerves. Some homeowners involved in class-action lawsuits over the site say banks have told them the properties aren't worth anything to lend against.
"This has been a failure of the government," said Ron Cumello, head of a local homeowners association.
The homebuilders, developers, the Army Corps and local government that zoned the land blame one another. The former Pinecastle Jeep Range is one of about 9,000 "Formerly Used Defense Sites" the Army Corps oversees.
The corps' top priority is Spring Valley in Washington, D.C., where residents are above ground polluted by World War I chemical weapons testing and unexploded munitions.
September 18, 2008
Pg. 3
By Travis Reed, Associated Press
ORLANDO -- When residents of several neighborhoods near Orlando International Airport go to bed, they wonder what most homeowners don't: Is there a bomb under my house?
They recently learned their 8-year-old developments were built on a World War II bombing range that wasn't thoroughly cleared. Now they're scared for their lives and investments and angry with developers and local government officials who residents claim shouldn't have allowed the homes in the first place. "This is the only home I have," Esperanza Hernandez says. "Nobody wants to buy a house in this community."
There are hundreds of former bombing and artillery training ranges across the U.S., but few have 2,000 homes sitting on top of them.
Since the Army Corps of Engineers began sweeping the Orlando neighborhoods a year ago, they've found more than 200 munitions.
Most were recovered on the grounds of a middle school, including one lodged beneath the landing pit for the long jump.
The corps says it's extremely unlikely any of the buried munitions would detonate, but that's done little to calm nerves. Some homeowners involved in class-action lawsuits over the site say banks have told them the properties aren't worth anything to lend against.
"This has been a failure of the government," said Ron Cumello, head of a local homeowners association.
The homebuilders, developers, the Army Corps and local government that zoned the land blame one another. The former Pinecastle Jeep Range is one of about 9,000 "Formerly Used Defense Sites" the Army Corps oversees.
The corps' top priority is Spring Valley in Washington, D.C., where residents are above ground polluted by World War I chemical weapons testing and unexploded munitions.