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Long Beach drain project touted as neighborhood flood-relief fix
Anne Bielucke says rain floods her street nearly three feet high about every 10 years. Public officials announced a new drain project they say will solve the problem. Bielucke's lived in the same house near Termino Avenue and Anaheim Street for 40years. About 15 years ago waters nearly reached the windows of her grandson's new car parked outside her house. The car was damaged beyond repair.
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Adolfo Guzman-Lopez/KPCC
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Elected officials broke ground Wednesday on a two-mile storm drain project in Long Beach that’s set to give relief to residents who’ve endured up to three-foot floods in recent years.
Los Angeles County Supervisor Don Knabe told residents the East Long Beach project was more than a decade in the works.
“Obviously one of the many challenges we faced was the balance between flood protection as well as the need to protect the water quality for some of Long Beach’s most popular aquatic destinations, so it was a big job,” he said.
The neighborhood isn’t low-lying, officials said, inadequate drainage exacerbates water coming down nearby hills.
L.A. County’s paying most of the price tag on the $22.6 million project.
The city of Long Beach is paying nearly $3 million for water quality enhancements such as trash screens and other filters that will improve water quality in nearby Colorado Lagoon and the popular Marine Stadium where drain ends.
The environmental components are nice, said longtime area resident Anne Bielucke, but what’s more important is the project will prevent the large floods she endures about every ten years.
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“I get 20 to 30 inches of water in my garage," she said. "I’ve had to have one dryer and two washers replaced it gets pretty bad. Ask my daughter.”
About 15 years ago Bielucke and her daughter helped Bielucke’s grandson buy a new car in the winter time. One week after they purchased the car, heavy rains created waist-high floods outside her house and damaged the new car beyond repair.
Elected officials say the improved drains will be finished in two years.
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