Study Predicts Long-Term Damaging Flood Prospects For Baldwin

BALDWIN AND WHITEHALL, PA — A moderate to major flooding risk will exist in the Baldwin and Whitehall areas over the next three decades, a new study has concluded.

There are 1,155 properties in Baldwin's 15226 zip code that have greater than a 26 percent chance of being severely affected by flooding over a the next 30 years, according to the First Street Foundation report. That represents 6 percent of all properties in the zip code.

The First Street Foundation report calculates the risk of flooding on residential properties,
commercial properties, roads, critical infrastructure such as utilities and emergency services and social infrastructure such as schools and government. Those findings have been aggregated for every state, county, city and zip code in the country.

The New York based foundation, a research and technology group working to define America's growing climate risk, released the report, "3rd National Risk Assessment: Infrastructure on the Brink," on Monday.

The study comes as parts of Pennsylvania continue to recover from the destruction caused last month from the flooding and tornadoes triggered by the remnants of Hurricane Ida.

Under the study's criteria, "severely affected" refers to water, at a minimum, at the edge of a building. For residential properties, if water did not make it over the threshold, it may still do extensive damage to a lower lying garage, basement, crawl space, yard or parked car.

For commercial properties and government buildings, severely affected indicates workers, customers and others may not be able to safely access the building during a flood.

For the 15236 zip code, flood risks are as follows through 2051, according to the study:

• Overall flood risk: Major

• Residential: Minor

• Road: Major

• Commercial: Major

• Infrastructure: Extreme

Click here to see the flooding predictions for other zip codes in the Baldwin and Whitehall area.

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