Volunteers Help Clear Bronx River to Limit Flooding
When Hurricane Irene hit in August, severe flooding submerged the parking lot behind the Westchester County Center along the Bronx River, as it did along rivers throughout the county. On Sunday morning, volunteers and county officials were gathering in the same lot trying to limit the damage of the next storm.
In what County Executive Rob Astorino has dubbed “River Rescue,” the county has asked for volunteer help in clearing out the Bronx River and removing debris that was impeding the river’s flow. At locations across the river, volunteers spent Sunday morning and early afternoon clearing downed trees, branches and trash from the river.
“It’s sort of a call of action to people. We can’t prevent flooding without some major work that we need help from the federal government and state government, but we can sort of reduce some of the flooding in areas,” Astorino, legs drenched from standing in knee-deep water to help clear a tree near the County Center, explained. “I was just tired of all the talk that I had heard from everybody. Let’s just do something.”
Approximately 25 people showed up at the County Center site, while county officials said they expected around 100 total volunteers on Sunday.
“I think it’s important to involve the entire community. It brings everyone together,” said New Rochelle resident Vicky Sturner, one of the volunteers Sunday. “As we’ve just seen in the last two storms, when it floods it’s such a horrific event for all of the citizens living near the parkways and the rivers, so it’s a totally viable project.”
The Bronx River is just one of several that have flooded during severe storms, and Astorino said he hopes in the future to have similar volunteer cleanups at the Saw Mill River and Hutchinson River. These properties, though, are not owned by the county while the Bronx River is, making it the simplest and most logical place to start.
“Everybody was frustrated because they couldn’t do anything. There was all this red tape and all the bureaucratic stuff,” said Ned McCormack, Astorino’s director of communications, referring to the difficulties in cleaning up some of the other rivers in the county. “The difference is we own the park here, so we didn’t have to go through approvals from the state, the feds, and all that other stuff.”
Officials expected the cleanup to make a difference but acknowledged it was just a starting point.
“This isn’t a panacea,” McCormack said. “It’s not, ‘Problem solved,’ it’s ‘Problem helped.’”
But for minimal cost, Astorino felt the efforts were a logical step in the right direction.
“It would be thousands of dollars if we had to do this [with county employees working] on overtime,” he said. “Hopefully the flooding won’t be as bad after all of this.”
Work was also done at the river near Main Street in White Plains, but with more complicated methods of clearing the river needed there were professionals volunteering at this site. Members of the New York State Turf and Landscape Association lent a hand with both manpower and equipment, with representatives at each of the cleanup locations.
Adam has worked in the local news industry for the past two decades in Westchester County and the broader Hudson Valley. Read more from Adam’s author bio here.