A storm that pummeled Berks County in July hit Muhlenberg and Lower Alsace townships hard.
With 5 to 8 inches of rain falling over just three hours on that Sunday afternoon, streams breached their banks. The rapidly flowing water tore apart roads, it invaded homes and wrecked cars.
Some of the worst damage was suffered around Laurel Run and Antietam Creek, including devastation at Antietam Middle-Senior High School that forced the closure of the building.
Since the storm, people around the county impacted by the flooding have been undertaking the long and arduous task of recovering and rebuilding. And as they have done so, they undoubtedly have faced worries that another catastrophe could be right around the corner.
To help quell concerns of a similar disaster happening again in the future, state Rep. Mark Rozzi invited Department of Environmental Protection Secretary Richard Negrin and Department of Transportation Secretary Mike Carroll to tour the flood-damaged areas of his legislative district on Tuesday and to explore potential solutions.
Rozzi took Carroll and Negrin through Muhlenberg and Antietam townships, where community-wide restoration efforts continue. Rozzi said the goal of the visit was to assess what proactive measures could be taken to prevent future catastrophes.
“I’ve heard from hundreds of people in my district about how flooding in the area has affected their lives, whether last summer’s incident was the first time they’ve dealt with this or just the most recent,” Rozzi said
He said severe floods are a major problem for Berks County residents.
“They wreak havoc on people’s homes, our infrastructure and cleaning up the aftermath is a long, tedious and expensive problem,” he said. “It doesn’t need to be this way. That’s why I’m happy to welcome Secretary Negrin and Secretary Carroll so we can work together on ensuring the Reading area is more prepared for these severe weather events and we’re able to overcome them faster and more efficiently.”
‘Something needs to be done’
The tour started along Laurel Run, where Luigi Candelori shared his story of what he experienced during the storm.
He owns the property at 1114 Mount Laurel Road. The building serves as a production and storage hub for his business Monte Lauro, a gourmet marketplace specializing in a wide range of authentic foods.
Candelori told officials that the flooding of Laurel Run behind his property left about four feet of water in the basement. He said he spent two days shoveling out sludge following the storm.
It was, unfortunately, not the first time he has experienced flooding since owning the property in 1988.
“This is not an isolated incident,” he said. “This has happened before and will happen again. Something needs to be done.”
Possible solutions
As Rozzi and the state officials walked down Mount Laurel Road, across a bridge and then along the stream, they discussed what could be done to keep the waterway from overflowing during severe storms.
One possibility would be widening the creek from Mount Laurel Road bridge to the Muhlenberg Rail Trail where a bottleneck appears to form. That proposal is currently being studied by an engineer hired by the township.
But, they cautioned, that solution would require the support of many property owners and the assistance of many state agencies to make that happen.
They also suggested making some changes to the banks of the creek.
Andy Klinger, DEP’s director of the bureau of waterways, engineering and wetlands, said changing what grows along Laurel Run could help.
Klinger said one of the problems is that invasive weeds are popping up along the banks of creeks which provide no stability for the soil. To illustrate his point, he lifted up some Japanese knotweed growing nearby to show that it prevented any other vegetation from taking hold underneath and making the ground more susceptible to erosion.
Klinger said the best fix for that is to remove the invasive weeds, build up the bank with topsoil and plant native vegetation that would grow through the soil laterally to help hold the soil in place. But it would likely take three years before the situation improves.
He said another possible improvement would be removing sediment wedges from the stream, primarily found near the Mount Laurel Road bridge. He said getting rid of the sediment buildup around that area would increase capacity of the creek in that section.
“These things are all part of the solution,” he said.
Negrin said the one thing that won’t work is dredging the creek.
In fact, he said, it will make flooding worse. He said that while dredging a waterway can increase the flow it is also likely to cause faster and more dangerous floods downstream.
“It’s not the answer to the larger issue,” he said.
Getting it done
Rozzi said it’s going to take a group effort to make the fixes needed to protect the area from future floods.
“We needed to get the top people here to take a look at this situation and figure out our best way forward because this is going to happen again,” he said. “The goal today was to find some possible solutions. And we know it will probably take years of work.”
Rozzi said the problem is getting worse due primarily to climate change bringing more intense rains to the region and the development of homes on Irish Mountain.
He said that following the storm in July he walked along Laurel Run to see the damage that had been caused and was heartbroken to see so many who live along the creek reeling with the loss of their property.
“It’s not about the money for them, it’s the trauma that comes along with losing your property,” he said. “So I want to do everything I can to help out my constituents.”
Negrin said he watched footage of the July storm when it happened and has been monitoring the situation from Harrisburg. He said he wanted to tour the area because he believes his team can provide some guidance when it comes to possible solutions.
“We can make sure that they have the expertise they need,” he said. “And we can reach out to our local and federal partners that we work with all the time to talk about these possible solutions. These people who were impacted deserve some peace of mind.”
Negrin said he’ll do whatever he can to get people talking because that is likely the only way to generate the money needed to make these mitigation proposals a reality.
State Sen. Judy Schwank, who joined the group on the tour, said she was pleased the secretaries made time to discuss the issues being experienced locally and was happy to see they brought so many experts with them.
She said this is a longstanding problem that only strong collaborations at the municipal, state and federal levels can remedy.
“These are multifaceted problems here,” she said. “These problems go back to the development of the rail system almost 100 years ago that occurred in both Lower Alsace and Muhlenberg townships. They changed the course of streams, they put houses in places that seemed appropriate at the time but now water from these heavy storms is channeling through neighborhoods and creating a lot of damage.”
Schwank said officials have a good handle on why flooding happens and why it appears to be getting worse. The question now is how can they prevent it from happening, when can they take action and who is going to provide the resources to make it happen.
Source: Berkshire mont