Retaining wall helps Merizo family

When Tropical Storm Tingting struck eight years ago, the hill beside the Barcinas residence in Merizo collapsed, sending rocks and mud tumbling toward the house.

The mud built up against the wall and was almost up to the windows, Dolores Barcinas remembers. Even after the wind and rain had passed, things didn't get better.

"I heard this big noise," she said. "It was a big rock that rolled down from the back of the hill."

Later her son discovered a tree branch had somehow broken through his bedroom window.

But yesterday, after several years of dealing with the unstable mounds of dirt left by the storm, the Barcinases celebrated the return of their backyard.

Gov. Eddie Calvo and some legislators gathered at the house, which is on the main road that weaves through Merizo, for a ribbon-cutting ceremony of a federally funded retaining wall. The wall protects the Barcinas house and the heavily trafficked road from future soil erosion.

The project, which took a month to complete, was the last of seven Tingting projects funded through the Emergency Watershed Program, said Jeff Wheaton, an engineer at the United States Department of Agriculture Natural Resources Conservation Service.

The projects -- totaling $2 million -- started soon after the storm, but took time to complete because each site had specific engineering requirements, and there was a lack of resources, he said.

The Merizo wall resembles a giant staircase, and is constructed out of wire baskets filled with heavy stones. The project cost about $200,000.

Calvo joked the wall would be a good place to hang orchids, though the family has said they want to grow beans there.

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Retaining wall helps Merizo family