Haywood County Fights Flood Issues
The City of Brownsville recently received a $1.1 million dollar grant to buy areas that are at high risk to flood. Officials told 7 Eyewitness News they would rather prevent a problem than solve one. Several inches of rain fell Sunday and Monday throughout West Tennessee, hitting cities like Brownsville and surrounding towns pretty hard. “Brownsville is blessed to have a lot of water, but that blessing is also a curse. We have areas in town that are in low-lying areas,” said Brownsville Mayor Jo Matherne. Mayor Matherne stated all the homes purchased will be demolished and turned in park and public lands. FEMA awarded Brownsville the grant to get rid of homes in low-lying areas affected by the floods in May 2010. Public works crews hit the streets at 7, Monday morning clearing out roads and ditches with leaves and debris. “We’ve been cleaning up leaves and getting everything out of the drainage system. The main thing out of our work area is the drainage for the whole town,” said public works director Bobby Mayer. Officials state previous floods have motivated them to be more prepared for rainy spells. “When we have these rainfalls like we’ve had these past couple of days, it does help us to be able to manage and control the flow of the storm water coming off our streets into the ditches and on out of the city,” said Mayor Matherne.
