What a Prepared Community Is Like

The village of Upper Black Eddy, PA, in Upper Bucks County, PA is along the Delaware River.

We've been getting a large number of floods lately:



In fact, in 2011, we've had 4 floods.

In fact, in all of the years from 2000-2009, we had 3 floods, and in 2010-2011 we've had (so far) 5 floods.

So, then, why when I submitted the report to Bucks County this morning was I sending in what was (possibly) the most boring flood impact report ever? Very little major damage. No casualties.

Preparedness.

I'm talking about really taking the task of being prepared for flooding seriously.

For example, how do you keep your furnace from flooding in the basement? You don't. You replace it with a Heat Pump on your roof:


If you can afford it, elevate your home like this one - the whole house was lifted and the garage below created in the space:


If you can't afford to lift the house, when you're rebuilding after a flood, change the way your home is insulated and paneled and floored - this home was restored to "live in" condition not long after the flood waters receded (the water came up higher overnight):


People knew to clear their yards of everything they could - no propane tanks, toys or lawn furnishings left out:


All in all, a community to be proud of. They love their riverfront, and while it's a shame to have so many floods, they are doing the right thing to make it work for them.

Are heat pumps these days effective in very cold weather? How does their efficiency compare to gas or oil? I'd always thought of them as a temperate climate solution, but less than ideal in places that get cold winters. All and all an interesting place for sure.

With a name like Upper Black Eddy, you somehow suspect that these people are familiar with floods. How did things go in Lower Black Eddy?

I like boring afteractions. It means everything worked.

Before the hurricane, I put together a few boxes of stuff to drop off at a few family members homes. The boxes had basic storm supplies, like flashlights, battery operated radios, water bottles, cord, ducttape, plastic sheeting, ect. I wanted to make sure that they were equipped, regardless of what they actually had at their house.

Anyway, after the storm, my brother says, "it was nice of you to put all of that stuff together for us, but it was kind of a shame we didn't need to use any of it."

I thought to myself, if that's the worst problem you have after a hurricane, is that you didn't get to use any of your hurricane gear, than that's a pretty good problem to have.

I find there is no better insurance against disaster than preparedness. In preparation for Irene I did a full maintenance and pre-positioned both my generators, topped-off my fuel supplies and even bought a hurricane tarp for the house. Fortunately, I've not needed to use any of these or other items so far this season.

I know the Black Eddy area. I've stayed several times at the Chestnut Hill B&B in Milford. The Oyster House was one of my favorite dining spots there. Haven't been in many years though, but I know that area is bad with flooding. Did the bridges take any damage?

Not very newsworthy in the usual sense, was it? Very good!

From your flooding photos there, and the ones from here every so often, one might think that pontoons would be worked into the equation. And a heavy steel cable attached to a very large rock.

Sue

Its nice to see folks accepting the reality of the environment they chose and adapting to deal with it. The same thing has happened in the Florida Keys over the years assisted by building codes that require that the first floor of structures contain no furnished living space that are open to allow flood waters (or in their case, the storm surge) to flow around and under the structure which hopefully survives. This has no doubt saved untold millions of dollars in damages. Unfortunately, not all residents believe in the building code and have secretly built in this buffer space to rent out to tourists. I suspect they do so at the peril of having their insurance company deny any claims.

I have no idea. Quite a few places around here have them.

The Oyster House, which moved from its previous location near the Milford-Upper Black Eddy Bridge into a space along Rt. 519 near the creek was severely damaged when a small dam upstream broke, but they quickly rebuilt and re-opened.

Before:
http://photos.nj.com/hunterdon-photos/2011/09/readers_sent_photos_of_floodin_9.html

After:
http://photos.nj.com/photogallery/2011/09/dam_at_milford_park_2.html

There was flash flooding in Milford as a result. Friends of mine were evacuated at about 2:30 AM when the water started rushing down the aptly-named Water Street.

The recently restored Milford-Upper Black Eddy Bridge sustained no damage whatsoever.

Chestnut Ridge on the Delaware was fine, as was the very nice Bridgeton House on the Delaware, just across the river.

We live a bit further south than Bucks County PA, in Anne Arundel county Maryland. My experience with heat pumps here is that most of the time they are"OK", but in the coldest winter weather their internal electric heaters turn on; so you are heating with direct electric heat. How this all works out over the course of a year in terms of cost vs. natural gas, oil, propane seems to be highly variable depending on the exact construction (e.g. insulation, windows etc) of the house and the costs of the various alternatives. If you have to replace your furnace due to floods every 10 years or so, the cost difference of having a heat pump system that survives the flood is probably a good trade off, even if the yearly energy cost for the heat pump is higher. The devil is in the details of each individual situation.

No (assuming you mean air-to-air heat pumps). Their efficiency goes from something like 1:4 (1 kw of electrical power in => 4 kw out) to something like 1:1. So in really cold weather they're about as good as an conventional electrical heater with the same power consumption. (Or a conventional gas/oil heater with the same rating - 1kw of heat is 1kw of heat, no matter the fuel source).

I expect most modern heat pumps to work quite well down to at least -15C/0F. How many days each year is it colder than that?

Any heating system must be designed for the climate and the house in question. So with heat pumps.

Those I know who lives in really cold places is to design for a combination of heat pumps and other sources of heating. The most common combination is to have old fashioned electric ovens, a wood stove and a heat pump. The heat pump does the brunt of the heating - and most of the year that is plenty. Only when it is REALLY cold outside does the stove and the electric ovens come into play.