Woman says city has ignored broken retaining wall washing away yard

OKLAHOMA CITY (KFOR) — An Oklahoma City woman says the backyard she’s called home for more than half a century is being washed away by a creek, and despite years of phone calls to the city, nobody has done anything to fix the problem.

Linda McCurley has lived in her southeast Oklahoma City home for 51 years.

“I’ve been here a long time,” McCurley said. “I love this place. I love this neighborhood.”

But now, she says, that backyard sanctuary is becoming unrecognizable.

“It’s heartbreaking to see this,” she said. “I can’t even walk out here for fear of falling because there’s holes everywhere.”

She says she first noticed the ground sinking about 20 years ago.

“Just started eroding into the creek,” McCurley said.

Concrete retaining walls meant to keep the creek behind her house in place began collapsing.

“We haven’t got concrete in 20 years,” she said.

McCurley says the creek and the retaining walls belong to the city, and that she’s been calling them for help for at least a decade.

“I’ve been calling them for ten years,” she said. “A lady came out, looked at it. She said it was terrible. It was the city’s position to fix it. They would get somebody right out. And then the second time, I can’t remember his name, came out, and this was already caving in. And he said the same thing. He said, ‘It’s pretty bad,’ which I knew that, and ‘we’ll get somebody out here.’”

But she says nobody ever followed through.

“Every time it rained, it’d get a little further and a little further and a little further,” McCurley said. “Then the fence started caving in. It stood for a while.”

She says she’s rebuilt that fence twice, and now, her backyard shed is next.

“That whole yard’s gonna be back there. My trees, my building here that has my lawn equipment in it—everything will be in this creek,” she said. “I’m not rich. I live on a fixed income. I draw Social Security. That should tell the story.”

“You should not have to go this far to get something done,” she said. “I’ve paid taxes for years, and I expect things to happen after all this time. I’m going to die soon. I’d like to know that this got fixed.”

News 4 reached out to the City of Oklahoma City.

A spokesperson said they’re going to look into the issue and get back with News 4.