The work of some Yonkers teens combating flooding is urgent. The green teens’ next big project is to find lasting solutions to combat flooding around southwest Yonkers and implement the solution.
The stormwater could not find an adequate channel to flow through into a discharge outfall. This municipal housing authority complex in southwest Yonkers saw waters rise seven feet; which was why the groundwork Hudson valley provided a green solution. The incident did some tremendous damage to this area’s groundwork.
Executive director Bridget Griswold runs the green team. A program that employs Yonkers teens to do environmental work. Their next project then was to construct bios well at the complex. It was a sunken garden that helped direct flood water away from where people didn’t want it to go, i.e., into the basements of apartments, and where people did want it to go, i.e., into the ground.
Their work was urgent because residents along the sawmill river parkway reported unprecedented flooding. One of their representatives said that he was confident that their work would be held down strong to stop erosion; all the mud from getting into the river. The trees survived, which gave these teens hope that they could do something about climate change.
The green team also used maps created by the new school’s urban system lab that identified flood-prone areas across Yonkers, which align with historically redline neighborhoods.
Everyone needed to know what communities are disproportionately affected by urban flood risk. This critical problem is being fought using green solutions in Yonkers.
