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Chris Collins announces federal aid to repair flood damage in southern Erie County

by jmaloni

Press release

Fri, Feb 15th 2013 02:25 pm

Summer storm in 2009 damaged area roadways

Congressman Chris Collins announced Friday that the Federal Highway Administration is sending nearly $7 million to Western and Central New York to repair roadways heavily damaged when storms hit the region during August of 2009. Severe storms and heavy flooding washed-out many roads in southern Erie, Cattaraugus and Chautauqua counties. The same storm system also caused damage in Central New York. 

The federal funding will cover the costs of emergency repairs that were made shortly after the storm, and fund permanent repairs necessary to restore the roadways to pre-disaster condition.  The nearly $7 million can be used for repair or reconstruction of federal-aid highways and roadways on federal lands that were damaged as a result of a natural disaster.

"There was significant damage everywhere you looked," said Collins, who said he remembers walking the streets of Gowanda and other areas in southern Erie County following those two days of heavy rain and flooding back in the summer of 2009.  "Helping localities repair their infrastructure after a natural disaster is an appropriate use of federal tax dollars, and this funding will be put to good use in the areas impacted by that summer storm."

The Federal Highway Administration is also awarding New York more than $13 million for roadways that were damaged by heavy rain and flooding that swept through much of New York in the spring and summer of 2011. 

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