WASHINGTON — Dawn Taylor remembers noticing a crack in the road in her Piscataway Hills neighborhood. Then she remembers watching it widen.
“You could fit your whole leg in that crack,” Taylor recalled.
That was spring 2014.
But no one was prepared for what happened that May.
“It was like the parting of the Red Sea,” Taylor said. “The ground just opened up, and the hill came down. It was the scariest thing I’ve ever seen.”
A landslide threatened 28 homes in the Piscataway Hills neighborhood of Prince George’s County.
This week, Piscataway Drive — a narrow, twisty road that leads down to the community-owned lot on the banks of the Potomac River — reopened to vehicular traffic.
Initially, there were disputes about how to tackle the issue: The state wouldn’t declare it a disaster, and the scale of the problem was too small for Maryland to obtain federal funding.
Prince George’s County officials struggled to come up with a way to fund the millions needed to shore up the area so that homeowners could stay put.
Taylor said there were some town hall style meetings that generated more noise than solutions. Progress was made when residents formed committees and worked hand in hand with the county to get help.
Taylor credits Linda Turner, Special Assistant to the Chief Administrative Officer, with helping coordinate the county’s project to rebuild the roadbed.
Taylor said the two had a standing 4 p.m. phone call every day.
“She showed a ton of empathy,” Taylor said. “She really made me feel that we were important and that she was in it with us.”
It took $15 million — 11 of that coming directly from the county — and reinforcements in the hillside to restore the roadway.
Taylor said the county rebuilt more than a road, it cemented a community.
“There were tears, there was laughter, there was hugs, there was praying,” Taylor said. “We have beautiful neighbors.”
