Stimulus money floods in for Bucks project
Friday, April 17th, 2009
By: Shai Ben-Yaacov
sben-yaacov@whyy.org
People living in the Neshaminy Creek Watershed are used to the punishing floods that have ravaged the flood plain for decades. But help may be on the way, in the form of more than 10 million dollars in federal stimulus funds Bucks County has received to mitigate flood damage.
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About 1,200 people live in the flood plain, and about 500 more work in businesses located there. A flood in the summer of 2006 caused millions in damage and displaced hundreds.
The funds will complete a mitigation project already in the works that is raising 240 homes above the ground to avoid flood damage.
Congressman Patrick Murphy represents the affected area. He says now that funding is secured, he believes there will be quick progress on the remaining homes.
Murphy: Because these projects are shovel ready, the 80 homes that we're dealing with will be finished by September of 2011.
While most of the damage from the 2006 flood has been cleaned up, some properties will be demolished and cleaned using the stimulus funds.