It’s been more than one year since the remnants of Tropical Storm Debby brought heavy rains, flooding and even a tornado to Pennsylvania. Residents in Potter and Tioga counties, which saw some of the most damaging flooding, questioned the state's response and said they’re worried how the state will respond to future weather emergencies at a recent public hearing.
The Pennsylvania Senate Veterans Affairs & Emergency Preparedness Committee held the hearing last week in Coudersport called "Tropical Storm Debby: one year later."
Lawmakers heard testimony from residents, including Stephen Tinder, who lives in Bingham Township, Potter County. His house is in front of a dike that got destroyed during the storm in August last year.
“When this was over, the river was level with my yard and my septic and my well," Tinder said.
Some of the houses around him had to be condemned because of flood damage.
Tinder said it took too long to get state authorization for funding and heavy equipment to repair the dike. While they waited, the township had to make do with rocks to keep the water back.
“And it was a makeshift dike for a year," Tinder said. "Thank God there were not any high water events.”
Tinder said that dike wasn't fully repaired until a few weeks ago.
Lawmakers also heard testimony from residents of one community who say they had no running water for three days.
“It is very nerve wracking knowing that we are one bad storm away from losing our water again, which could be even for longer," said Amanda Paul, the secretary and treasurer of Galeton Borough.
A year later, some bridges in the area are still out of commission.
Officials blame a few factors, including what they called overly cumbersome processes to get support from the state and federal government. Local municipalities applied for federal funding and got approved, but haven’t seen any money yet.
State Sen. Doug Mastriano, a Republican who chairs the Veterans Affairs & Emergency Preparedness Committee, said the Shapiro administration doesn’t seem to prioritize rural Pennsylvania.
“I want to see concern and interest in people who are recovering in Potter and Tioga, or Beaver counties, rather than just focusing on blue areas of the state, and this is a bad look," Mastriano said.
County officials say the money for bridge repairs is being held up by the Pennsylvania Emergency Management Agency.
Larry West represented PEMA at the hearing and said it's FEMA at the federal level, not the state, holding up the money.
“We are an administrative agency for FEMA," West said. "It is their federal programs. They’re not our guidelines. It’s theirs.”
As for what they can control, West said PEMA is constantly working to improve communication with county administrators.
West also responded to concerns from local officials who say they don’t have enough money to repair their infrastructure, including bridges. He said the state does have a $5 million budget line every year for state public assistance, but that’s not enough to help everyone.
“I don’t think the state can go ahead and fix every bridge that gets flooded across the Commonwealth," West said. "We would never be able to do that. But what we may be able to do is use some of those dollars to help those communities with soft costs, to be able to hire an engineer to do some of the design work for those bridges.”
But West said it’s ultimately the county’s job to lead local recovery efforts.
Lawmakers at the hearing said they’re going to continue pressuring PEMA to identify shortfalls in the response to last year’s storm, and to find ways to improve.
Senator Katie Muth, who sits on the Veterans Affairs & Emergency Preparedness Committee, said climate change will cause more storms like Debby and more damage to communities.
“Over the past century, massive increases of greenhouse gas emissions have caused the temperature of our planet to rise, causing climate disasters that will only get worse," Muth said.
Emergency management officials say flooding is becoming more common across Pennsylvania.
