BELLEFONTE — Work will begin soon on five Centre County properties damaged by intense storms last October, paid for mostly by Emergency Watershed Protection funds from the federal government.
Starting late in the evening Oct. 20, 2016, 8 to 10 inches of rain fell over the course of about four hours on some parts of the Bald Eagle Valley. Flooding hit multiple communities and damaged stream banks.
In December, the county said it would act as a sponsor to go after federal funds for qualifying projects to repair some of the damage as a result of the unprecedented rainfall.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Natural Resources Conservation Service will provide 75 percent of the $187,800 for the work through EWP funds, with the state Department of Environmental Protection kicking in the other 25 percent. The project had initially been estimated at about $204,000, with the five properties divided into three projects.
The work in Coleville, Spring Township, is the most costly of the work to be done, with a $129,000 price tag on two properties. Another two properties in Julian will cost $33,000, and a property in Howard Township will cost $24,900.
The three projects are all stream bank stabilizations that are threatening homes or businesses, said Robert Sweitzer, director of the Centre County Conservation District, which did much of the local coordinating.
Sweitzer said a lot of collaboration was required between the USDA, the DEP and county government to acquire the funds, which is why EWP projects take months to come to fruition. Congress must approve the funds before they can be dispersed.
All three projects will not only repair erosion damage from the October storms, but hopefully mitigate the effects of high water events in the future, Sweitzer said.
On June 12, the county commissioners awarded all three projects to low-bidder Steven Kreiger Excavating of Saxton, Huntingdon County. Companies had the option to bid for each individual project.
The autumn storm wreaked havoc across the entire northeast as a non-tropical storm tapped into warm, summer-like weather, with much colder air following in subsequent days, according to AccuWeather. Temperatures plummeted to 30 to 40 degrees after record-high temperatures in the 70s and 80s. Though central and western Pennsylvania were among the hardest regions hit, flooding was reported in Massachusetts and New Hampshire, as 2 to 4 inches of rain fell over a short period of time throughout New England. Destructive high winds also were reported in isolated areas.
The USDA provided $93 million for EWP projects in 2016, spread across 19 states. The most money last year went to 27 communities in Utah for severe flooding in late 2014 and early 2015. Pennsylvania had no projects on the docket last year.
These are not Centre County’s first EWP projects, Sweitzer said. In 1996, temperatures warmed up in January, bringing rainfall on top of an already large amount of snowpack, causing flooding in several locations. Another small EWP project was approved in 2011 for flooding.
