Study: Lorain County faces higher flood risk than state, Northeast Ohio average

ELYRIA — A review conducted over the past year found that Lorain County is more susceptible to flooding and severe winter weather than the rest of Northeast Ohio or the state on average. The findings were announced in a meeting at Lorain County Public Health on Thursday, as the Northeast Ohio Community Resilience Centre shared the latest on its ongoing "coastal resilience" project. The coastal resilience project is an effort to identify and review the current impact of the environment and climate of Northeast Ohio on residents as well as how those impacts are being changed by increasing global temperatures, and formulate a plan for dealing with such issues in the future. It covers nine counties in Northeast Ohio including Lorain County. Last summer the Resilience Centre – then called the Northeast Ohio Black Health Coalition – started the project by holding community meetings to gauge residents' perspectives and set priorities for different communities. Community meetings last year allowed the nonprofit to survey 168 residents of Northeast Ohio, including 28 from Lorain County. Following the survey, Resilience Centre Executive Director Yvonka Hall said that the organization then looked through the data to see how well those perceptions lined up with reality. Hall said that both in Lorain County and across the region, flooding was identified as a major concern. She said that residents across the region perceived flooding to be happening with more frequency and severity in recent years. Residents are right to feel this way – especially in Lorain County, she said.. "Flooding is generally perceived by community experts as happening sometimes, but getting worse over time," Hall said Thursday. "Originally, people said 'you know, it kind of floods sometimes,' but they kind of noticed last year, when we started having those really wet days, it seems to be happening more and more frequently than it used to, right?" The Resilience Centre said that on a 100-point flood risk scale, Lorain County scored a 52. This was higher than the state average of 45 and much higher than the average for Northeast Ohio as a whole, which stood at just 38 out of 100. Areas where flooding is most prevalent were cross-referenced with areas that have the most vulnerable populations, such as the elderly and the disabled, to determine where flooding would present the greatest risk to residents. "The priority areas of the highest flood and social vulnerability risk were the Elyria metro, Cascade Park, around the Black River and neighborhoods in South Lorain," Hall said. "These areas (were perceived to have) the highest flood and social vulnerability rates, and that was proven to be true because we looked back at the data and it said the same places." Specific areas that were found to face regular flooding risk and have high social vulnerability scores were several areas along 28th Street and Tower Boulevard in Lorain and along Lorain Boulevard and Bond Street in Elyria. Hall said that the most important ways that the county could address these areas of concern would be to invest in them by either directly improving stormwater infrastructure or providing funds for residents to improve their own gutter or drainage systems. Additionally, she said that the county or organizations within it should explore the possibility of implementing a flood warning system similar to existing tornado warning systems. Lorain County also ranked much higher than both state and regional averages on a 100-point scale calculating for risk of severe winter weather. The Center found that Lorain County's risk of severe winter weather was 85 out of 100, outpacing the regional average of 71 and state average of 67. Hall said the Resilience Centre planned to work with community-based organizations, such as churches and food pantries, to try to keep residents better informed about environmental risks facing them and resources available to them. She said this would hopefully serve as a precursor to the creation of a permanent resilience center in Lorain County, which could serve as a local hub of information on climate change issues, environment concerns and extreme weather conditions. The organization is still in the process of completing its coastal resilience project, so attendees at last week's meeting were asked to provide additional feedback that will be incorporated into the developing plan for Northeast Ohio. Contact Owen MacMillan at (440) 329-7123 or omacmillan@chroniclet.com.