Flood Fact of the Day--#2 in a Series

How will you build it? Where will they go?

PLEASE OPPOSE COUNCILMAN NUTTER'S BILLS 990760 AND 990762!

• The methods used to determine if an obstruction will cause a rise in the 100 year flood level do not consider the effects of debris building up on fences and pilings, We all know that debris does pile up. There were many stunning examples during hurricane Floyd, the best of which may be the tree still hanging twelve feet over the river between the supports of the railroad bridge.
• There are no specific design and engineering standards for building residential buildings in a floodway probably because we shouldn't build residential units in a floodway.
• Debris trapped against the pilings, due to the swirling and turbulence, can be repeatedly thrown against the pilings or the building for hours. What's the design standard for that?
• Debris can be multi-ton trees, blocks of ice or cars moving at 20-30 miles per hour, and as we saw during Floyd, tractor trailers.
• Were a flood to exceed the 100 year level the force of the water being pushed down under the building is entirely different than the forces when water is simply flowing through and around the pilings. What will happen then?
• You are more than six time more likely to experience a 100 year flood than a fire.
• Automobile insurance doesn't cover flood damage.
• People do not behave responsibly during a crisis. While one development proposes a pedestrian escape bridge from the second floor, the route for vehicles takes them through rapidly flowing water. Someone attempting to save their vehicle or property at the last minute could easily be swept into the river.
• Two of the proposed developments will both exit over a single two-lane bridge creating a nightmare situation should there be an emergency evacuation in the middle of the night. In addition that is also the only access for Smurfit-Stone which employs over 300 people.
• The Pennsylvania state house and senate just overwhelmingly passed a bill sponsored by Senator Anthony Williams from Philadelphia that sets aside $10 million to buy out and demolish homes flooded by Floyd. Sen. Robert M. Tomlinson (R., Bucks), the amendment's author, said the bill would set aside $10 million for the Federal Emergency Management Agency's hazard mitigation program, "to break the cycle of flood conditions by moving people off the flood plain."