Filed by: WHEC News 10, a NBC-affiliate station
Rochester, NY, August 30, 2019 - Here at home people who live along Lake Ontario that were impacted by the record-breaking flooding this summer tell us they will apply for help from the state.
But is it enough? Some homeowners are saying no.
The state is offering help through the Lake Ontario-Saint Lawrence River Flood Relief and Recovery Program. The program will give people up $50,000 to help offset flood damage to their "primary homes."
We spoke to some neighbors living along Edgemere Drive in Greece, an area that has seen its share of the record flooding.
The neighbors we talked with said they either plan to or have already applied. But some added that it does not solve everything. They say the water levels on the lake are still too high.
The state says this new funding complements the already $300 million they plan to offer communities.
As we've reported, towns including Greece have asked to get a piece of that pie to make improvements like reinforced barriers.
In the meantime, we spoke to an organizer from New York Sea Grant, an organization which is helping to educate neighbors on erosion and connect them to other grant funding for their own barrier improvements.
On Friday the organization held an informational meeting for neighbors living in Greece, Webster, and surrounding areas.
"We can still portray those options to them and we can set them going in the right direction in the future," said Great Lakes Coastal Process and Hazards Specialist Roy Widrig.
The homeowner application period starts on October 1 and will close on October 31.
Neighbors we spoke with plan to meet next Tuesday, September 10, to discuss this and other flood-related topics.
More Info: New York Sea Grant
New York Sea Grant (NYSG), a cooperative program of Cornell University
and the State University of New York (SUNY), is one of 33 university-based
programs under the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s
National Sea Grant College Program.
Since 1971, NYSG has represented a statewide network of integrated
research, education and extension services promoting coastal community
economic vitality, environmental sustainability and citizen awareness
and understanding about the State’s marine and Great Lakes resources.
Through NYSG’s efforts, the combined talents of university scientists
and extension specialists help develop and transfer science-based
information to many coastal user groups—businesses and industries,
federal, state and local government decision-makers and agency managers,
educators, the media and the interested public.
The program maintains Great Lakes offices at Cornell University, SUNY
Buffalo, SUNY Oswego and the Wayne County Cooperative Extension office
in Newark. In the State's marine waters, NYSG has offices at Stony Brook
University in Long Island, Brooklyn College and Cornell Cooperative
Extension in NYC and Kingston in the Hudson Valley.
For updates on Sea Grant activities: www.nyseagrant.org has RSS, Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube links. NYSG offers a free e-list sign up via www.nyseagrant.org/nycoastlines for its flagship publication, NY Coastlines/Currents, which is published quarterly. Our program also produces an occasional e-newsletter,"NOAA Sea Grant's Social Media Review," via its blog, www.nyseagrant.org/blog.