On top of all the other problems which Modesto, California, has with homeless people, they’re infested with cave dwelling troglodytes. That’s a dangerous thing which can’t be allowed. On Wednesday, October 26, “firefighters were there extinguishing a rubbish fire inside one of the caves.” Lack of escape exits is only one serious code violation.
Cave dwelling discouraged
When conservationists and city officials came back Thursday, a man was “sleeping inside the largest cave on the west side of the bank, adjacent to the one that was still wet with fire retardant.” The problem isn’t one which popped up like a mushroom, overnight.
Volunteer cleanup organizer Chris Guptill considers removing trash from the banks of the Tuolumne River “an unending process.” His group calls themselves “Operation 9-2-99.” Everyone can be an ecologist.
“Once the trash goes down the river and ends up in the ocean, you are never going to undo that. We are trying to prevent things that can’t be undone.”
Loss of life is another thing which can’t be “undone” and the local cave complex is as dangerous as it is cozy. While out with other community leaders doing ongoing trash removal, they discovered several caves dug into the hillside along the south bank of the river.
At least three known caves were dug in near Crater Avenue in west Modesto. They have smaller entrances opening up “into larger areas with as much as 12 feet of space.” Generally, they’re “tall enough to crouch in and long enough to lay in.”
One cave “even has a shelf for storage.” Even though our pre-historic ancestors lived in similar shelters for eons, they had ones less prone to collapse. Fire was centuries in the future and once it was discovered, humans quickly learned to keep it outside where it belongs.
Digging like gophers
Local urban campers have been digging along the river bank like gophers for years now. “Digging to make pits, digging to create flat surfaces for camping and depressions cut into the hillside.”
Anthropologists who saw some photos told the Modesto Bee that cave and similar shelters have been known in the recent past but “nothing as elaborate as the caves near Crater Avenue.” Part of the popularity is the local dirt.
For about a mile along this particular riverbank, the soil is mostly “silt.” Its both easy to dig and it “maintains its structural integrity.” Mostly. Cave collapse is a definite possibility at any time. Everywhere else in the vicinity is sandy dirt which won’t serve the purpose.
Along with the ease of digging for libertarian troglodytes, “the area is too steep to get heavy equipment there to fill them.” Its also a good thing the drought dried the river up. “Without higher river flows, these places won’t be taken back by nature.” That makes it “a perpetual place for people to return.”
First responders hate them. “They also pose a safety risk to the people living in them and the first responders who might have to conduct a rescue or recovery in the event of collapse.”
Not only is there a collapse and fire danger at the cave complex, as of Thursday, “the banks were again littered with bags of trash and rotten food. Plastic 5-gallon buckets and metal objects were submerged in the shallows of the river, and items were again accumulating.“
