Bethel Park residents call for better flood controls
BP residents call for better flood controls
{child_byline}By Cara Host
For the Almanac
writer@thealmanac.net
{/child_byline}
For some Bethel Park residents, it seems as if 100-year floods are hitting their community nearly every year.
Several who experienced flooding in the most recent deluge spoke at the July 9 council meeting asking for better infrastructure to prevent the next flood.
Kerry Ann Stare said her home on Horning Road has been flooded three times since 2013 in what were described as 100-year floods.
“The water problem in Bethel Park is beyond what citizens can handle on our own, and it’s going to happen again and again,” she told council.
Despite its name, 100-year floods are not flood events that should be expected only once every 100 years. Instead, it’s a flood that has 1 percent chance of happening in any year.
Still, some residents said the floods that are occurring with increasing frequency aren’t due solely to bad luck or acts of God, but to poor flood controls in the municipality.
Jason Hill said he has been dealing with flood issues since he moved to Bethel Park. It’s not just the major storms that cause major problems in his house, but more routine rains can cause flooding, too.
“Every time (the weather forecast) calls for rain, my wife and I worry: Are we going to get flooded?” Hill said.
Catherine Sturman said she saw a sign commemorating the flood protection project in Bethel Park just before she moved to the municipality.
“I thought it was protected from flooding,” she said. “I feel misled.”
Council members sympathized with flood victims and said that the municipality is constantly looking at ways to improve flood controls. For many years, Bethel Park has had an ordinance requiring developers to install drainage, retention ponds and other stormwater management infrastructure any time they build a new neighborhood or shopping area in the municipality.
Bethel Park also has flood controls that it maintains. The June 20 storm damaged some of this infrastructure, and Tim Moury, council president, estimated it would cost the munici-pality about $500,000 to repair it. Municipal engineers are reviewing the flood control sys-tem to find ways in which it can be improved.
“It’s a long process,” Moury said.
The municipality is compiling a list of homes that were damaged by the flood. Municipal manager Shawn Arbaugh said the information would be used to determine patterns of flooding and possible locations for infrastructure improvements.
The flood damaged at least 400 homes in Bethel Park, and at least two houses were dam-aged so severely that they were left uninhabitable, Arbaugh said.
The bright side to this disaster, though, is the way the community rallied together to help their neighbors, said Mayor Jack Allen. He recognized several volunteers who helped organize clean-up efforts in the days after the storm.
Volunteers with Black Hawk Family Relief Fund fundraised, organized volunteer cleanup crews, arranged childcare and provided food to volunteers and flood victims. Becky Luzier said the group raised $15,000 so far.
“We have all been through so much. It was certainly an unfortunate incident, but the silver lining is we got to meet some really amazing people,” Luzier said.
Allen also recognized Chris Van Dyke and Lisa and Jim Jenkins for lending their expertise in repairing several homes. He said many other people stepped up to help their neighbors, particularly Bethel Park volunteer firefighters.
The department rescued dozens of people stranded by the rising floodwaters, pumped out flooded homes and led cleanup efforts by distributing flood relief kits to the flood victims.
“I know there were firefighters that needed help at their own homes,” Allen said about the night of June 20, “but they instead stayed on duty to help their neighbors.”