GREENSBORO, N.C. — Greensboro leaders discussed ways to improve flooding along Buffalo Creek —a problem spot for years.
A video showed one of many examples over the years.
WFMY New 2's Nixon Norman learned how the city is making it less of an issue for people.
The city of Greensboro and professional consulting firm Stantec gave three alternative solutions to help.
Those include improvements to the Revolution Mills, North Elm, and Latham Park areas through various means of flood mitigation.
Flooding has taken place near the creek for decades and it's heavily impacted neighbors for years.
One of the worst cases of flooding was back in July 2019. A cloud burst took place over the friendly area. Leaving several Guilford homes with water in them.
“I had 42 inches of water in my basement, and I watched it come through my neighbor’s fence and start filling up and squirting through the fence boards. It was shocking man. You see that and if you don't have any experience with it, you're like, what in the world is about to happen here,” Highland Park Resident, Jason Vincent said.
Although many of the residents at Thursday night's meeting said they're victims of repetitive flooding, stats from Stantec show that flooding events like the one that took place in 2019 are quite rare.
“The July storm that everyone remembers, that was not even a 2% annual chance event, what that kind of means is, on average, two of those [heavy rain/flood events] could happen in 100 years,” Stantec Senior Project Engineer, Matthew Armstrong shared.
Another point of contention was the Cridland Bridge. Mention of the bridge itself left the room divided. Several people say the bridge makes flooding in their area worse.
"It's really a mix; those who live immediately along North Buffalo Creek would like to see the bridge go away; those who live in the surrounding area, that use that to access Wendover Avenue, to access the traffic signal, they would like the bridge to remain," City of Greensboro Engineering Supervisor, Johnnie Hill said.
Although the three possible solutions were given to the crowd, more ears perked up at the idea of a FEMA home buyout where FEMA could possibly buy the homes of those who face repeated flooding.
"If they buy my house, it at least gives me the opportunity to give me fair market value for my house. It gives me the opportunity to take that money to pay off whatever that I owe on the house and you go and have money to put down on another one on higher ground," Vincent added.
Now that the city and Stantec have given these options, they'll continue to listen to community feedback and ultimately make a decision.