PITTSBURGH (KDKA) – It’s a community that has been hard-hit by flooding before, but with recent heavy rains residents in Greenfield are especially concerned about rising waters.

On Friday, local lawmakers announced a flood mitigation project to try to change all that.

It has been a very dry last few months so this week’s rain has been great unless you live in a certain part of Greenfield.

“The rain’s good, but not down here in The Run,” Marty Matvey said.

The Run is a small neighborhood at the end of Greenfield Avenue. When it rains, the area becomes prone to flooding.

“It’s pretty powerful when it comes up, you can’t really stop it,” Matvey said.

However, the city is trying to help. Today, they cut the ribbon on new water mitigation project.

“Concrete, plants, mulch, trees, rocks to absorb some of the water. This doesn’t go into the pipes, so all the water that runs down this hill behind us gets absorbed right here in this demo project,” Councilman Corey O’Connor said.

“This is one of the areas in the city when we get heavy storms that floods. So, to have this here is going to help with that and really be a demonstration for us what we can do throughout the city to try to deal with some of these flood prone areas,” Mayor Luke Ravenstahl said.

Matvey said he has lost two furnaces, two water heaters, plenty of entertainment, a pool table and a foosball table in past floods.

But will the project work?

This week’s rain did result in some flooding so for Matvey, he’ll stay ready.

“Just prepare. I have all my furniture up on tables,” Matvey said.

Councilman O’Connor pointed out that this is an experiment and if it proves to be successful, it

could be put in other neighborhoods in the city if feasible.

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