FEMA OKs Funding for $17 Million in Projects To Move 139 Families Out of Harm's Way 

Release Date: June 14, 2002
Release Number: R3-02-01

A neighborhood in Upper Moreland Township will be transformed as the result of a federal, state and local effort to move people out of harm's way.

On the one-year anniversary of Tropical Storm Allison, which caused severe flooding in Berks, Bucks and Montgomery counties, U.S. Rep. Joe Hoeffel joined officials from the Federal Emergency Management (FEMA), the Pennsylvania Emergency Management Agency (PEMA), and Upper Moreland Township to talk about hazard mitigation programs and the disaster recovery.

"More than $17 million in hazard mitigation projects have been approved for funding in the last year," said David Thomas, Branch Chief for Community Mitigation Programs in FEMA Region III's Federal Insurance and Mitigation Division.

Of those projects, two in Upper Moreland Township come directly from the Hazard Mitigation Grant Program for the Tropical Storm Allison disaster. The $2.1 million projects will be used to acquire and demolish 16 houses in the area adjacent to Mill Creek, near the intersection of York Road and Mill Road/South Warminster Road. They were submitted by the township to the state and approved for 75 percent federal funding by FEMA. The state will provide 22 percent and local sources will pay 3 percent to complete the projects.

A supplemental appropriation by Congress to acquire or elevate homes repetitively flood-damaged, will be used to buy 23 additional houses in Upper Moreland Township. In all, Thomas said, 41 structures in Montgomery County will be permanently removed from the floodplain. One more house will be elevated. The total for projects in Montgomery County is $7.8 million.

In Bucks County, FEMA has approved a $1.2 million project to elevate 25 houses in areas around the Neshaminy Creek. Supplemental funding for this project was previously announced, as was an $8.3 million project in the Eastwick neighborhood of Philadelphia to acquire 72 houses.

Under the terms of the buyouts, the land will be left as open space in perpetuity.

Last Modified: Wednesday, 27-Aug-2003 08:40:09