AND THE WALLS CAME TUMBLING DOWN
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Centex Agrees to Buy Back Rivermist Homes
They are buying back homes, but some Rivermist residents are still not happy. Since a retaining wall collapsed in January, homeowners have been uprooted and some still are not back in their home. As Rivermist residents rallied Wednesday in front of their homes, the builder Pulte homes offered buy backs to the 27 homeowners still displaced.  Pulte homes says they will rebuild the entire retaining wall that collapsed. They are also promising to inspect all similar walls city-wide that are more than four feet tall and built within the last three years. FOX 29 Grace White Reporting

Pulte To Buy Back 27 Rivermist Homes
The families who live in those homes have been under an evacuation order since the slope failed, causing structural damage to several homes, putting several others at risk. Wednesday evening, residents in the subdivision gathered in front of the damaged homes, and called on Pulte to do right by the remaining homeowners, some of whom say they have already seen serious structural damage to their homes, which they believe was caused by the slope failure. "Our issue is that Pulte doesn't want to talk to us," said John Schneider, who owns a home across from where the slope failed. "The only communication we've had from Pulte is through their attorneys. What we're looking is for for them to talk to us about taking care of us."

Builder offers to buy back homes after landslide
The builder of a San Antonio development partially evacuated after a landslide in January has offered to buy back 27 homes. Spokeswoman Valerie Dolenga said Wednesday that Dallas-based Centex Homes is offering to buy back the homes because homeowners will likely need to remain evacuated another six months. The homeowners had to leave Jan. 24 when a landslide began and a retaining wall split.  WOAI 4 News Report

Hills of Rivermist residents rally, demand buybacks
It's been weeks since a massive retaining wall failure left an entire subdivision questioning the safety of their homes. Now, dozens from the Hills of Rivermist subdivision are demanding action by Pulte-Centex homes.  They say they are frustrated with the lack of progress.  Stacia Willson has the full story. KENS 5: Stacia Willson Reports

Buyback offers for 27 homes at Rivermist
Centex Homes will offer to buy back 27 homes in a Northwest Side neighborhood and plans to spend $4 million to $5 million to rebuild a massive retaining wall that collapsed Jan. 24. Carlos Pena, who bought a house a few months ago at the top of the slope, stood at his back door and pointed to where the earth fell away from his house. The area where his back porch once stood now drops straight down at least 10 feet and his entire backyard sank.He has received a buyback offer but said it doesn't address the stress his family has experienced. “It's not enough,” Pena said.

City inspector probe merits Council scrutiny
Misconduct by rank-and-file city employees is far less conspicuous than misconduct by city leaders. But it can be every bit as destructive to public confidence. When it involves the enforcement of city codes, it can pose even greater dangers to public safety...City Council should monitor the investigation's progress closely. The taint of impropriety can't be allowed to mar city government. Enforcement of the city's building code shouldn't be up for sale.

Soil still shifing along the Hills of Rivermist
Pulte-Centex homes says the soil is still moving in the Hills of Rivermist. New reports of cracks in walls had the homebuilder back on the site with engineers, doing soil testing. The company confirms it hasn't stopped the ground from shifting along some portions of the failed retaining wall.

Jury awards $58 million to Mansfield couple in home builder lawsuit
The Culls filed suit in December 2000 in an attempt to get Perry Homes to fix structural and foundation problems that started shortly after they moved into their 2,900-square-foot, four-bedroom house near Walnut Creek Country Club in 1996.The case became politically charged as it moved through the judicial process. Perry Homes is owned by Bob Perry, who has contributed heavily to judicial candidates and political action committees in Texas. Warranty Underwriters Insurance Co. in Houston is also a defendant. "It became more of a mission and less about the home," Cull said. "We're still in that battle."

Shifting Soil Threatens Homes’ Foundations
STEVEN DERSE, the owner of a corporate travel business in Nashville, cannot feel his house move, but he can hear it. “It’s an eerie creaking sound,” he said, and it echoes throughout his two-story Georgian-style house.It started two years ago when a severe drought contracted the soil beneath the foundation, which caused it to crack and sink, pulling the house down with it. The noise has continued intermittently, becoming more insistent last year when flooding pushed the already compromised foundation and house back upward.

Little Rivermists are everywhere in San Antonio
What is going on over at the Hills of River Mist is just 'the tip of the iceberg' in San Antonio. The 'Mud Lake of Rivermist' would have been a more appropriate name. All over San Antonio and the surrounding areas just outside anybody's oversight, subdivision after subdivision have been built where thousands of homes have had foundations constructed on improperly prepared lots.

Chinese drywall destroying homes and lives in Virginia
The list of defective products manufactured in other countries now includes chinese drywall.  And more than 100 families in eastern Virginia say they are living a nightmare because of it. "My child never had a bloody nose from the dawy we moved out of that house, and they had them constantly living in those houses."

Rivermist residents urge city council to hold homebuilder accountable
Residents of the northwest neighborhood of Rivermist are again asking city leaders for help. They want the city to encourage their homebuilder, Centex/Pulte, to buy back their homes. They say the wall collapse problem is getting worse. Neighbors say the retaining wall that collapsed in late January is breaking down even more, just down the street. Chuck Cervantes, who lives across the street from homes that have been evacuated because of the collapse and ongoing safety concerns, says Centex/Pulte has hired a company to test soil samples from under the Rivermist homes. Cervantes thinks that soil was never equipped to support a construction project of this size.

Residents in landslide area fear more cracks in walls 
Some evacuated San Antonio residents say more cracks have shown up in retaining walls meant to halt sliding soil and protect their homes. Residents of The Hills of Rivermist said they started noticing the cracks after heavy rains several weeks ago. Some residents stopped by the site Wednesday, in the neighborhood where slipping soil on Jan. 24 forced the evacuation of about 90 houses.  Sherwin Tolentino, who's still living in a hotel, showed reporters apparent unstability in a fence and foundation problems. Tolentino says cracks have opened in a large retaining wall behind his house. City spokeswoman Di Galvan says a building inspector Wednesday could find no new damage. Centex Homes has hired an engineering firm for evaluation and recommendations on fixing the soil problem.

New cracks found in Rivermist walls
Residents say new cracks have opened in retaining walls in a Northwest Side neighborhood where the collapse of one wall led to the evacuation of more than two dozen homes. The affected walls are independent of the one that sustained the collapse, but are nearby. “There's one that's very significant,” said Sherwin Tolentino, a resident who has been evacuated from his home for five weeks. “I could put my fingers between the cracks. You're looking at a ticking time bomb.”