Millvale Will Continue to Flood Unless Rezoning Efforts Are Made, Says Pitt Faculty Expert

PITTSBURGH-Louise Comfort, Pitt professor of public and urban affairs, has watched Millvale go through flooding at least three times in the last 20 years. "The river will not move; the city needs to rezone its downtown area," says Comfort. "This is a long and complicated story, but the town is located in a flood zone. It has flooded before, and will again and again, unless the good people of Millvale rezone their town.

"There are strategies they can take to lessen the risk," continued Comfort, "but they have spent resources and time recovering from disaster, rather than taking protective measures against the next flood."

Comfort says Millvale is part of the regional risk of flooding in Southwestern Pennsylvania. Fixing the problem will require financial support from the county and state.

Comfort has authored many articles on natural disasters, including "Vulnerability Assessment for Flooding in the Pittsburgh Metropolitan Region," funded by The Pittsburgh Foundation, McCune Foundation, and The Buhl Foundation, 2006-2007. She is a professor in the Graduate School of Public and International Affairs at the University of Pittsburgh.

For a list of Pitt faculty experts, visit http://www.umc.pitt.edu/m/experts.html

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8/13/07/tmw