FEMA to fund Ithaca flood mitigation project
The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) awarded design funds for Ithaca's flood mitigation project, the city announced Thursday in a statement.
Phase 1 of the project is projected to cost $800,000, with 90% of that now being funded by FEMA, and the remaining 10% funded by the city.
The project aims to institute flood control measures along Six Mile, Cascadilla and Fall Creeks in the City.
"Upon successful completion of Phase 1, FEMA will review the project for release of Phase 2 construction funding up to approximately $10.1 million," the city said in a statement. "The project is expected to take 3 years to complete and will ultimately result in changes to the new FEMA flood maps."
"By proactively enhancing our flood mitigation measures, we not only bolster our community's resilience but also work towards alleviating the strain on individual budgets," Mayor Laura Lewis said. "These FEMA funds will move us much closer to crucial infrastructure work on flood mitigation and we are thankful for their support.”
Looking at models
In 2015 shortly after FEMA announced they would be updating flood maps, the city convened a working group -- consisting of of the United States Geological Survey (USGS), engineering faculty from Cornell University, Tompkins County Soil and Water District, Tompkins County Planning Department, and the City of Ithaca Department of Public Works (DPW) -- to perform a Local Flood Hazard Analysis (LFHA) for areas prone to flooding.
"At the outset the working group believed, and it was confirmed, that the 1981 FEMA flood maps greatly underestimated flood risks in the city," city officials stated on the FEMA Flood Risk Information page of Ithaca's City website.
The city hired the engineering firm Barton & Loguidice to use the United States Geological Survey (USGS) to study and evaluate various mitigation strategies, and the results were published in February 2020.
In February 2022, and again in January 2023, FEMA published draft and preliminary flood maps for review and comment.
The city site claims FEMA used the same flood modeling techniques used by USGS but used "more conservative assumptions in thier model, resulting in similar but more extensive flood inundation areas."
"Because of the similarities in the USGS and FEMA flood models, the city believes that the mitigation measures identified in the 2020 LFHA report are still valid. "
This article originally appeared on Ithaca Journal: Ithaca flood mitigation FEMA funding
