Flood Mitigation

By Donald R. March

Working with localities to help mitigate future floods

Recent climate change research suggests that the wetter local climate may be here to stay. In the eastern United States, annual precipitation is expected to increase. At the same time, the frequency of extreme precipitation events is also forecast to increase even more dramatically.

Given the existence of noted flood plains in Westchester County, historic experience with flooding, and evolution of a wetter climate featuring both greater annual precipitation and more frequent intense precipitation events, Westchester County's course of chronically ignoring the flood issue is unsustainable.

My approach to addressing the flood issue will entail:

• Development of a Flood Plain Master Plan: I will work to see that the County develops, in coordination with local, State, and Federal officials, a comprehensive flood plain master plan. This plan will integrate environmental/ecological/open spaces policy (e.g., Wetlands protection), development practices, soil erosion management, storm water regulation, public information/awareness, river/stream flood mitigation, tax policy, and the budget process into a cohesive approach aimed at reducing the risk and magnitude of flooding and providing a framework that makes possible a robust ability to respond in near real-time to flooding situations. Only a cohesive approach can be effective, as ecological, development, and public information practices can all have an impact on the risk and magnitude of flooding. A piecemeal approach would fail to address such important factors.

• Smart Budgeting: Even when the risk of flooding is reduced so that damages from minor flooding are eliminated and the impact of larger floods is reduced, floods will remain a regular-recurring event given the Sound Shore area's topology, glacial soil, and coastal location. I will seek to make investment in flood mitigation a specific and well-funded part of the County's capital budget. I will propose that the County create a flood relief fund so that affected communities will never have to wait for the next budget cycle to receive funding as is the case following the 2007 floods.

• Create an Intergovernmental Rapid Reaction Flood Team: The County Government will provide leadership in establishing an intergovernmental flood team of local, County, and State representatives with the authority and capacity to respond to floods in near real-time and put in process the administrative machinery to maximize sufficient and timely flood assistance.