SUNBURY -- A state grant will be used to fix up a one-block section of a flood wall in Sunbury built in the 1930s.
Some people who live on Front Street in Sunbury consider the city's flood wall to be one of the most important things there. If the wall was not there, Henry Auman knows his home would be flooded during bad storms.
"It would flood Market Street up to the tops of buildings. It would come from all sides and dikes would give," he said.
"The last time the waters rose, they came up to the bottom of the flood wall. If that wasn't here, things over here would have gotten flooded," said Linda Degroat.
The two-and-a-half-mile flood wall was built in the 1930s. A one-block section of the wall is eroding from the impact of nearby Lake Augusta along the Susquehanna River. The stones need to be replaced.
Sunbury recently got more than $400,000 in state grant money to repair and replace this section of the flood wall. Many of the eroded stones had been repaired in the past. Now they will be replaced with a type of erosion control wall to prevent this from happening in the future.
City officials tell Newswatch 16 work on the flood wall is expected to start sometime next year.