WRA Hosts Flood-Risk Conference

The River Reporter‘s Liam Mayo covers WRA’s Annual Technical Event

EASTON, PA — How do people along the Delaware River adapt to climate change and manage the risk of flooding?

That was the guiding question of a conference held on April 28 by the Water Resources Association of the Delaware River Basin (WRA), a nonprofit that helps its stakeholders collaborate to preserve the Delaware as a working river. 

“Our focus today is about taking action,” said Liesel Gross, CEO at the Leigh County Authority, introducing the conference. 

Glenn “Hurricane” Schwartz, who served as chief meteorologist for Philadelphia’s WCAU-TV, gave the conference’s keynote presentation. 

The current climate situation is not the new normal, Schwartz said; it’s the new normal for now, but the climate is still changing. 

You can’t plan for what’s now, he said. You have to plan for what’s coming. Other speakers at the conference talked about how to make those plans. 

The Philadelphia Water Department has created a Delaware Valley Early Warning System (EWS) to alert its stakeholders of threats within the watershed, said Kelly Anderson, director of watersheds with that department. 

Read the full story here.

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