BATON ROUGE - It's a story 10 years in the making. That's how long a woman has been dealing with a sinkhole in her backyard. A call to 2 On Your Side finally got it fixed.

Over the last 10 years, Mechele Evans has reported the problem spot in her backyard to the city-parish. It wasn't until a couple of weeks ago did that problem get the attention it deserved.

"When we moved in in 2010, there was a problem and we reported it to the city at that time," Evans said. 

Since then, she says she's reported the problem a few times. In the last three years, Evans says the problem became more noticeable. Then last month, the ground opened up and uncovered what had been happening all along.

A hole opened up in the corner of her yard--10 years of erosion finally giving way.

"When we had all that rain last month the cable went out and we just ran in the backyard to see if we could figure out why. And most of the concrete was gone, and there was a really big hole," she said.

Evans saw that the corner of her property had washed away causing her fence to hang in the air. On the other side of that fence, a large portion of a concrete-lined canal had washed away. The land underneath another portion of that canal was missing too.

"It was really steep and really scary," Evans said.

That day, Evans said her husband called the city again and someone came out to take a look. More time passed and the issue was still not taken care of. That's when Evans contacted 2 On Your Side. The city-parish came out that same day and work started soon after.

Trees were removed and so was the broken concrete from the canal. The parish brought in multiple truckloads of new material to patch the canal and fill in the hole.

"I appreciate all the hard work they did," Evans said.

Now she's happy to have her yard back since the repairs have finally been made.

The city-parish says this repair is temporary and the problem spot will be further addressed during the EBR Flood Risk Reduction Project involving the clearing and dredging of Jones Creek, Ward Creek, Beaver Bayou, Bayou Fountain, and Blackwater Bayou.