Lake Murray homeowner blames new development for causing trees to fall on house
Linda Shanabrook’s husband was asleep in their bedroom when a tree fell through their roof.
He was unharmed, but he was quite a sight when he emerged from the bedroom.
“He came out covered in insulation and plaster,” Shanabrook said.
The damage was caused by one of two trees that has fallen on her house in the past year, among several that have fallen down behind her house after recent rains caused a torrent of water to flow downhill toward her property.
Shanabrook blames the construction of new homes on the ridge above her home near Lake Murray. For nearly 20 years, she’s lived in the Night Harbor neighborhood off Amicks Ferry and Green Meadow Drive without any issues, she said. But when Great Southern Homes began adding homes on Daymark Drive a couple years ago behind her cul-de-sac, Shanabrook says she suddenly saw a sharp increase in the amount of water that came running down the hill into her backyard.
The Chapin-based developer did not respond to attempts by The State to reach them to answer questions.
“There was a 4-foot-wide river running between my house and the neighbor’s house,” she said. “It breached window wells on the back of my house,” causing her husband, Jed, to have to scoop the water out from under her house.
Living at a low point in the area’s terrain, Shanabrook said they had routinely had rainwater accumulate in their fenced-in backyard that runs up to a wooded hillside where deer can often be seen frolicking. But a French drain previously removed most of the water fairly quickly, she said.
That changed when developers cleared the land to build several new houses above her home in the summer of 2023, an addition to the same subdivision the Shanabrooks have long called home. She blames the construction with eroding the landscape and causing additional runoff that sometimes leaves her with 10 inches of standing water that has left a visible mud line along the back of her home.
It became worse this past summer when several trees on her wooded hillside began to fall over from the roots. Two of them struck the Shanabrooks’ home, including one that put a tree branch straight through the roof of the room where Jed was sleeping.
When a reporter for The State visited the home last week, several downed trees could be seen behind the house, and a blue tarp was covering the hole in the bedroom ceiling.
Shanabrook blamed the damage on five homes under construction by Great Southern Homes behind her home, but says the developer has “ghosted” her when she tried to get in touch with them. She said she contacted Lexington County, but was told the new construction was not the source of the flooding, something she says she has evidence to dispute.
After the water from one recent flood had receded, “I found construction screws in the water,” Shanabrook said.
Shanabrook estimates she’s spent about $12,000 out of pocket to fix the damage to her home. “That’s not including the fence and yard repairs after the trees came down,” she said. “Nobody will come to look at replacing the deck or the screened-in porch. I say ‘we get this amount of water’ and they go away. They’re afraid of it.”
She fears she will still have to spend more money on the problem, if she can get in touch with the owner of the property directly behind her fence line – and pay to bring down the remaining trees before they cause any more damage.
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