Relief for Flood-Prone Yardley Borough in Bucks County
The residents of Yardley Borough in Bucks County are hoping some new anti-flood devices will keep the Delaware River out of their homes and businesses the next time the river overflows its banks.
KYW's Brad Segall reports construction workers broke ground on a nearly $200,000 project designed to make it easier for Yardley's storm water system to handle floodwaters. Crews will begin installing more than a dozen much-needed backflow preventers in the borough's Rivermawr neighborhood which is nestled between the river and the canal.
Council President Joe Hunter says this should help mitigate the effects of flooding:
"We're all on the National Weather site to see what the river level is going to be so we know what that means. But now that we see that we have backflow preventers then that will ease some of that tension that we have."
The system is designed to handle up to 22 feet of water. The borough was decimated by three major floods between 2004 and 2006. Congressman Patrick Murphy helped secure federal funding for the project.
