The Tonawanda creek has three log jams in Alexander that have contributed to several floods in the Town of Alexander and the Village of Attica over the years, specifically at the Plaza on Prospect street where several businesses are now prepping for possible flooding in the next 12-24 hours, depending on rainfall amounts.
Last year the plaza area flooded twice.
Business owner Jeannine Morlacci experienced both floods in 2018.
“We are ready for evacuation,” says Morlacci.
“We are ready to move all our stuff out.”
Morlacci owns Marluski’s Restaurant and Ms. Jean’s Day Care Center in the Prospect street Plaza. She has been at the plaza for 1 year and is on alert.
One local businessman has decided to do something to help alleviate the threat of flooding since local governments have not.
Last Thursday, owner of Upstate Chevy, Dodge, Jeep, Frank Bork, decided to pay for the logs to be removed from the Stroh road bridge log jam.
Bork contacted the landowner, Greg Stevens, who gave him permission to drag the logs out of the creek and onto his property.
Bork also contacted the DEC about removing the logs to help prevent a flood from occurring at his plaza and dealership again.
The DEC did stop by the work site at the Stroh road bridge on Saturday and allowed the work crews on scene to continue to work as long as they were not working in the creekbed.
By Monday afternoon, a good portion of the log jam on the east side of the creek had been removed.
An ice jam formed in the afternoon Monday, but seemed to be breaking up and flowing about 5:00p.m. However, there are still two other log jams located further north past the Stroh road bridge in Alexander.
People in Attica and Alexander have their fingers crossed tonight that the partial log jam removal will help alleviate some of the flooding.