Stalled projects hamper flood recovery

Two years after the floods of 2006 devastated the Tier, a number of items designed to reduce the chance of a similar catastrophe sit unfinished -- and in some cases, not started.

In most cases, officials blame a lack of money. In another case: timing. In a third, a bad computer set a project back months.

Any way you slice it, several projects have yet to come to fruition, despite having been touted shortly after the region began digging out from the catastrophe that killed four people, destroyed 1,100 homes and caused at least $175 million in damage.

In Broome County alone:

* Residents of Union's Fairmont Park neighborhood have known for years that one of the levees standing between them and the next flood is shorter than it needs to be. But the town has been unable to get $350,000 or so to fix the problem.

* More than a dozen low-income families in Vestal, Conklin and two other towns still need buyouts of their flood-ravaged homes. But it's unclear if the money in a new state program will meet the need.

* People to the north and south of the Susquehanna River near Washington and State streets in Binghamton are no better protected by their floodwalls than they were in 2006. The sealing of cracked concrete, delayed last year while officials waited for answers on a grant application, hasn't started.

* A floodwall that needs raising near Binghamton's Crowley Foods remains untouched. An Army Corps of Engineers study conducted in 2006 recommended the work.

"Some of this should be a no-brainer," Union Town Supervisor John Bernardo said. "To the people who've been affected by the floods, protection is priceless."