Yonkers High School students build rain gardens to combat flooding

Yonkers High School students were busy at work Saturday to help combat climate change’s impact on the city.

Many neighborhoods in Yonkers are incredibly vulnerable to flooding primarily due to the hilly nature of the city and its lack of greenery. Climate change is also bringing more rain than the city has ever seen.

In an effort to prevent future flooding, Groundwork Hudson Valley members, who are also Yonkers High School students, went to work Saturday to build rain gardens.

The gardens appear normal on the surface, but underneath are elaborate systems designed to absorb excess rainwater, filtrate it and release it through a drain. This prevents it from flooding anyone’s backyard. The infrastructure trench runs from a high point to a low point leading to the water draining system.

“Rain gardens help with absorbing the excess water that comes in and it helps filtrate and absorb that water, and also release it through its drain so that way it doesn’t flood the residents’ homes,” says Candida Rodriguez, of Groundwork Hudson Valley.

Something as simple as a rain garden can prevent millions of dollars of damages due to flooding.

The team is set to go out to several different municipal housing sites within Yonkers to install them.

See original article here: https://westchester.news12.com/yonkers-high-school-students-build-rain-gardens-to-combat-flooding

---

About Groundwork Hudson Valley: Groundwork Hudson Valley is an environmental justice non-profit working with communities to improve climate resilience and adaptation, promote sustainability education, and nurture the next generation of environmental leaders. For more information visit groundworkhv.org.