DRBC LOOKS FOR FLOOD MONEY
By Tom Coombe, The Morning Call , August 18, 2007

The Delaware River Basin Commission could receive $250,000 to improve its flood warning system, U.S. Rep. Charlie Dent said Friday.

Dent, R-Lehigh, made the announcement at the future site of Easton's Flood Museum and Resource Center on Northampton Street.

The new system would include improved precipitation and stream gauge networks, and updated technology to improve flash flood warning capabilities. It would be administered by the DRBC, working with the National Weather Service, the U.S. Geological Survey and the Army Corps of Engineers.

Stream gauges can help alert emergency workers when a flood is coming hours before water goes over a creek's bank. Electronic gauges can even contact 911 centers when water gets to a certain point.
But at many streams in the Lehigh Valley, rescue workers and residents have had to rely on simpler, less effective devices like measuring sticks or marks painted onto bridges.

The lack of gauges on those streams meant no one could be warned that water levels were rising rapidly in September 2006 as the remnants of Hurricane Ivan dumped up to 8 inches of rain in the area, leading to widespread flooding and extensive damage.

Dent said the House has approved the $250,000, part of a $1.75 million package that includes funding for Northampton County's Department of Human Services, as well as the police departments of Allentown, Bethlehem and Easton. It still needs approval from the Senate.

''It would significantly help us,'' DRBC Director Robert Tudor told a group of people gathered at the museum building for a tour Friday morning. He added that the resource center part of the museum could help the DRBC, which wants to have ways to get the word out on flood information at various sites around the basin.
The $250,000 would only pay for a portion of the warning system, but it's a start, said Clarke Rupert, a spokesman for the DRBC. ''The technology is there,'' Rupert said. ''We just need the money to do it.''
He said that if this money can start a successful program, it might prompt the federal government to follow with more funding. Rupert said DRBC representatives plan to brief legislators in Washington this fall on flooding issues.

The flood warning system is part of a larger plan released last month by the DRBC to mitigate damage along the Delaware River and its tributaries. The plan was put together after the river flooded three times in a little under three years, during storms that killed nine people and caused serious property damage.

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