Briarcliff Manor mayor: Curbing future flooding starts with expanding Route 9A

Briarcliff Manor is begging the state to help curb future flooding after the remnants of Hurricane Ida flooded neighborhoods.

News 12 Staff

Oct 9, 2021, 8:21 PM

Updated 1,097 days ago

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Briarcliff Manor is begging the state to help curb future flooding after the remnants of Hurricane Ida flooded neighborhoods.
It's fall in the village, but pieces of soggy furniture and other water damaged items are out in the street along with Halloween decorations.
Lois Olivieri is throwing out a lifetime worth of precious furniture. Just one month ago, Ida put her home and most of her neighbors' underwater because what looks like a calm stream behind them raged during the storm.
"And then it actually gets so high that it wraps around and makes a river in front of all the homes," Olivieri says.
The flooding is becoming all too common with more frequent severe storms.
"The storm that you'd see maybe once every 30 years, it seems like we're seeing every five years," says Briarcliff Manor Steven Vescio.
The village believes the solution is to expand Route 9A nearby.
"So if that structure were larger, it would allow the water to freely flow and not flood these homes," Vescio says.
Vescio is now pleading the state to step in to replace the route's century-old bridges.
"It's almost as if they're waiting for a major tragedy to happen before they finally address this issue, and I hope they address it before that happens," Vescio says.