Downingtown Resilience Fund schedules community meeting to address flood concerns

Downingtown — The Downingtown Resilience Fund, representing property owners and residents in Caln, Downingtown, and East Caln, has scheduled a community meeting to launch a flood readiness and avoidance plan. A zip code postcard mailing will soon be going to all the homes and businesses.

The nonprofit has been working since October to develop a plan to aid citizens affected by disasters like flooding and will present the plan to residents of the three political subdivisions in a community meeting on April 18 at 410 Clover Mill Road in Exton. The location is the local office of BELFOR Property Restoration, which has become a community partner with the Fund, providing technical assistance and guidance.

The Chester County Flood

Study Committee will present/update as they continue to define flood issues and derive a plan for mitigation and flood prevention. The Downingtown Flood Committee

will present potential projects they have developed for the sub-catchment area, including projects submitted by Caln and East Caln Townships.

Fund Chairman Barry Cassidy will then outline the plan, which will include recruiting volunteer case managers and a method of systematic application of letters of floodplain amendments (LOMA). The fund will also act as a repository for donations after flooding, which will be dispersed as cash grants for those affected.

“This is strictly a volunteer organization that will pass through 100% of all citizen donations in the event of a disaster as cash grants, said Cassidy. “We will be a little innovative regarding the LOMA and seek group applications, which we hope to fund with the pending Community Development Block Grant — Disaster Relief (CDBG-DR) funding which is ‘design-build money’. I believe we can make this all come to zero dollars for the property owners while providing neighborhoods like Mary Avenue with flood protection.”

Cassidy also noted that a key element in the plan is getting neighbors to help neighbors by recruiting volunteers to learn the FEMA programs and provide a smoother application process when seeking funding through the Individual Assistance programs. “I fill out funding applications for a living and have never seen anything as complicated as the FEMA process. I saw people in tears at meetings trying to explain their plight in a 2-minute time frame and speak of their inability to navigate the system…We are going to change that.”

The fund has registered with the Federal Government as a contractor and opened a Downingtown portal of FEMA -GO, the new grant application and management portal.

Cassidy pointed out that the 100-year floods normally impact low-income people who live in housing in the flood plain due to mobility and migration patterns dictated by past real estate practices.

FILE PHOTO The Downingtown Flood Committee will present potential projects they have developed for the sub-catchment area, including projects submitted by Caln and East Caln Townships.