Final homes along creek being elevated
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Final homes along creek being elevated
By: PETER HALL
Bucks County Courier Times
The home elevation program's funding includes about $18.5 million from FEMA and the NRCS and $10 million in stimulus funding through the American Recovery Reinvestment Act.
More than a decade after the remnants of Hurricane Floyd inundated hundreds of homes along the Neshaminy Creek in Lower Bucks, a $28.5 million federally-funded effort to move people and their property out of harm's way is going strong despite unexpected costs.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture's Natural Resource Conservation Service provided money for the Neshaminy Creek home elevation program to demolish or elevate more than 100 homes in the Neshaminy Creek's 100-year flood plain, where damaging floods have occurred four times since Floyd struck the region in September 1999.
Dick Manna, who oversees the program for the Bucks County Commissioners' Office, said the last 10 out of 80 home elevations are now in progress. Since the project began, the county has also overseen the acquisition and demolition of 25 homes.
Before it ends, the program will also pay for room additions to move 40 homes' furnaces and water heaters out of basements and above the flood plain. And there are 40 businesses that could qualify for protection if there is money left after all the eligible homes are modified, Manna said.
The home elevation program's funding includes about $18.5 million from FEMA and the NRCS and $10 million in stimulus funding through the American Recovery Reinvestment Act.
Homeowners have the choice to sell their homes, have them elevated or do nothing at all. The program has paid to flood proof homes in Bristol, Bensalem, Lower Southampton, Northampton, Hulmeville and Wrightstown.
The program has been the subject of criticism for spending more to elevate some homes than the homes themselves are worth. It also has encountered inflated price tags to repair unforeseen problems with homes after they're raised.
However, Bucks County leaders say the use of federal tax money is a bargain compared to the cost of restoring residents' homes and lives after repeated deluges in the flood-prone valley of the meandering creek.
"The one aspect of the program that gets lost the further and further away we get from the flood event is that there are a great number of costs that are borne by the federal government through FEMA," Cawley said.
Many of the homes acquired or elevated in the program were damaged in repeated floods during the last decade, which resulted in repeated costs to the Federal Emergency Management Agency and the National Flood Insurance Program.
"While there is a significant initial outlay of funds, it will be more advantageous to the federal taxpayer to end that cycle," Cawley said.
By removing the homes from the creek's flood plain or elevating them, the federal government will save about $460,000 a year in costs associated with flood damage, according the Natural Resources Conservation Service in the U.S. Department of Agriculture, which funds the program.
Commissioner Chairman Charley Martin said the program is more effective than the alternative solution - the proposed construction of the Dark Hollow Dam on the border of Buckingham and Warwick.
"The program has certainly done what it is designed to do," Martin said.
Jeff Mahood an environmental planning specialist for the NRCS said the Dark Hollow Dam would cost about $27 million to build today and would reduce the potential for flood damage by less than half. The home acquisition and elevation program reduces the potential for damage from a 100-year flood by nearly 100 percent for each home or business acquired, elevated or flood protected, Mahood said.
While Commissioner Diane Ellis-Marseglia said she's concerned about what she called the lack of competition for construction contracts in the program, Martin said the work has been divided among three engineering firms and the number of builders bidding on the construction contracts has increased.
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Of 45 contracts awarded since 2006, the average cost to raise a home was about $183,000. The commissioners have approved change orders on 26 of those contracts totaling $293,174, or about 3.5 percent more than the original cost.
Manna said the process of raising the homes, some of which are 60 or 70 years old, is often fraught with unexpected complications.
On a tour of creekside enclaves where the county has paid to raise homes, Manna stopped his car in front of a home on Water Street in Hulmeville, where structural problems added $25,527 to the cost of elevating it.
"When we lifted it, basically the entire back of the house fell out," Manna said.
In other cases, contractors have lifted a home to discover its foundation was little more than a pile of rubble.
Jeff Dowalo, a mason for Building Craft of Richboro, said that was the case for a home on Neshaminy Road in Croydon, where the company had to build a new foundation for the cinderblock walls upon which the house would rest.
"Sometimes you don't know what you're going to find until you start digging," Dowalo said as he laid the first course of block underneath the home, which appeared to float above the construction site on a grid of steel beams and stacks of timber.
In other cases, local code inspectors have insisted that outdated or shoddy plumbing and electric systems be upgraded or replaced, Manna said.
Manna said the homes are elevated between two and 14 feet. Sam Smith, owner of Bass II Enterprises in Vineland, N.J., which has performed a number of elevations for the county, said the process is relatively simple.
Workers disconnect all the home's utilities and demolish ancillary structures like decks and stairs that will need to be rebuilt. Smith's company uses Wolfe House Movers of Bernville, Pa., to perform the actual lifting.
Workers place steel beams under the home's first floor and use synchronized hydraulic jacks to raise the house about a foot at a time. After each lift, the workers place two layers of six-inch square timbers under the steel beams. They then reset the jacks to lift another foot and repeat the process until the home is raised to the required height.
Smith's workers then build a steel-reinforced cinderblock wall to permanently support the home. When the walls are complete, the timbers and steel beams are removed.
Manna said the USDA's policy for the program is to pay to correct unforeseen problems with a home that are discovered during the elevation process. "Although it's the owner's house and it's probably been a problem for years, the federal government doesn't want to cause any disruption," Manna said.
Manna said it was his decision to require contractors to request change orders when they encounter problems because it is easier to control costs that way.
In addition to the homes that the county purchased and demolished, FEMA also bought and demolished 90 houses in the immediate aftermath of Floyd. Manna said that approach is often preferable due to the condition of the home.
Some homeowners have turned down buyout offers because they have mortgages for more than their home is worth.
"We have some houses that are worth $120,000 that are mortgaged for $160,000," Manna said. "They don't have any equity, so where are they going to go?"
In the cases where the owners have sold to the county, the lots become county parkland, Manna said. There are a handful of homes where the owners refused to sell and the homes are deemed structurally unsound for elevation. Manna said he's hoping to convince some of those holdouts to sell.
"The people don't want to leave that creek," he said
By: PETER HALL
Bucks County Courier Times
The home elevation program's funding includes about $18.5 million from FEMA and the NRCS and $10 million in stimulus funding through the American Recovery Reinvestment Act.
More than a decade after the remnants of Hurricane Floyd inundated hundreds of homes along the Neshaminy Creek in Lower Bucks, a $28.5 million federally-funded effort to move people and their property out of harm's way is going strong despite unexpected costs.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture's Natural Resource Conservation Service provided money for the Neshaminy Creek home elevation program to demolish or elevate more than 100 homes in the Neshaminy Creek's 100-year flood plain, where damaging floods have occurred four times since Floyd struck the region in September 1999.
Dick Manna, who oversees the program for the Bucks County Commissioners' Office, said the last 10 out of 80 home elevations are now in progress. Since the project began, the county has also overseen the acquisition and demolition of 25 homes.
Before it ends, the program will also pay for room additions to move 40 homes' furnaces and water heaters out of basements and above the flood plain. And there are 40 businesses that could qualify for protection if there is money left after all the eligible homes are modified, Manna said.
The home elevation program's funding includes about $18.5 million from FEMA and the NRCS and $10 million in stimulus funding through the American Recovery Reinvestment Act.
Homeowners have the choice to sell their homes, have them elevated or do nothing at all. The program has paid to flood proof homes in Bristol, Bensalem, Lower Southampton, Northampton, Hulmeville and Wrightstown.
The program has been the subject of criticism for spending more to elevate some homes than the homes themselves are worth. It also has encountered inflated price tags to repair unforeseen problems with homes after they're raised.
However, Bucks County leaders say the use of federal tax money is a bargain compared to the cost of restoring residents' homes and lives after repeated deluges in the flood-prone valley of the meandering creek.
"The one aspect of the program that gets lost the further and further away we get from the flood event is that there are a great number of costs that are borne by the federal government through FEMA," Cawley said.
Many of the homes acquired or elevated in the program were damaged in repeated floods during the last decade, which resulted in repeated costs to the Federal Emergency Management Agency and the National Flood Insurance Program.
"While there is a significant initial outlay of funds, it will be more advantageous to the federal taxpayer to end that cycle," Cawley said.
By removing the homes from the creek's flood plain or elevating them, the federal government will save about $460,000 a year in costs associated with flood damage, according the Natural Resources Conservation Service in the U.S. Department of Agriculture, which funds the program.
Commissioner Chairman Charley Martin said the program is more effective than the alternative solution - the proposed construction of the Dark Hollow Dam on the border of Buckingham and Warwick.
"The program has certainly done what it is designed to do," Martin said.
Jeff Mahood an environmental planning specialist for the NRCS said the Dark Hollow Dam would cost about $27 million to build today and would reduce the potential for flood damage by less than half. The home acquisition and elevation program reduces the potential for damage from a 100-year flood by nearly 100 percent for each home or business acquired, elevated or flood protected, Mahood said.
While Commissioner Diane Ellis-Marseglia said she's concerned about what she called the lack of competition for construction contracts in the program, Martin said the work has been divided among three engineering firms and the number of builders bidding on the construction contracts has increased.
Advertisement Click Here
Of 45 contracts awarded since 2006, the average cost to raise a home was about $183,000. The commissioners have approved change orders on 26 of those contracts totaling $293,174, or about 3.5 percent more than the original cost.
Manna said the process of raising the homes, some of which are 60 or 70 years old, is often fraught with unexpected complications.
On a tour of creekside enclaves where the county has paid to raise homes, Manna stopped his car in front of a home on Water Street in Hulmeville, where structural problems added $25,527 to the cost of elevating it.
"When we lifted it, basically the entire back of the house fell out," Manna said.
In other cases, contractors have lifted a home to discover its foundation was little more than a pile of rubble.
Jeff Dowalo, a mason for Building Craft of Richboro, said that was the case for a home on Neshaminy Road in Croydon, where the company had to build a new foundation for the cinderblock walls upon which the house would rest.
"Sometimes you don't know what you're going to find until you start digging," Dowalo said as he laid the first course of block underneath the home, which appeared to float above the construction site on a grid of steel beams and stacks of timber.
In other cases, local code inspectors have insisted that outdated or shoddy plumbing and electric systems be upgraded or replaced, Manna said.
Manna said the homes are elevated between two and 14 feet. Sam Smith, owner of Bass II Enterprises in Vineland, N.J., which has performed a number of elevations for the county, said the process is relatively simple.
Workers disconnect all the home's utilities and demolish ancillary structures like decks and stairs that will need to be rebuilt. Smith's company uses Wolfe House Movers of Bernville, Pa., to perform the actual lifting.
Workers place steel beams under the home's first floor and use synchronized hydraulic jacks to raise the house about a foot at a time. After each lift, the workers place two layers of six-inch square timbers under the steel beams. They then reset the jacks to lift another foot and repeat the process until the home is raised to the required height.
Smith's workers then build a steel-reinforced cinderblock wall to permanently support the home. When the walls are complete, the timbers and steel beams are removed.
Manna said the USDA's policy for the program is to pay to correct unforeseen problems with a home that are discovered during the elevation process. "Although it's the owner's house and it's probably been a problem for years, the federal government doesn't want to cause any disruption," Manna said.
Manna said it was his decision to require contractors to request change orders when they encounter problems because it is easier to control costs that way.
In addition to the homes that the county purchased and demolished, FEMA also bought and demolished 90 houses in the immediate aftermath of Floyd. Manna said that approach is often preferable due to the condition of the home.
Some homeowners have turned down buyout offers because they have mortgages for more than their home is worth.
"We have some houses that are worth $120,000 that are mortgaged for $160,000," Manna said. "They don't have any equity, so where are they going to go?"
In the cases where the owners have sold to the county, the lots become county parkland, Manna said. There are a handful of homes where the owners refused to sell and the homes are deemed structurally unsound for elevation. Manna said he's hoping to convince some of those holdouts to sell.
"The people don't want to leave that creek," he said
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Comments
don't build in a flood plain, and if you do, foot the costs to protect your house yourself.
I just get kinda tired of people blaming the victim.
Not today Sir, Probably not tomorrow.............................................. bayfront arena st. pete '94
you're finally here and I'm a mess................................................... nationwide arena columbus '10
memories like fingerprints are slowly raising.................................... first niagara center buffalo '13
another man ..... moved by sleight of hand...................................... joe louis arena detroit '14
in the article, it states 4 floods since 99. you'd think after the second flood, the light bulb would go off.
same thing goes on here. people build along the river, rain comes down, river floods. people whine and moan that they need to build a flood wall.
New Orleans is the same thing. hey, i've got an idea, lets build a city below sea level on the sea where we know there is a good chance we will get hit by a hurricane.
common sense isn't so common.
you are kidding me right....