I received a comment the other day:
Please check out todays daily local, thursday, Oct 4th. Please look under public notices for the Downingtown Borough. FEMAand PEMA are asking for bids, to KNOCK DOWN 8 properties on Brandywine Ave. The very old duplex houses. 8!!!!! Please let your readers know about this.. I believe many are rented? Owned? Very sad… Destroying history again.
Look, I hate seeing houses get torn down, but this isn’t to destroy history. This is to basically try to make sure that Downingtown doesn’t flood again like it did during Ida.
FEMA and PEMA doing that means they just flood too badly that’s not destroying history that’s trying to save people a lot of aggravation in the future. It’s unknown, whether this will work or not.
I will post the notice from the Daily Local which you can also find online a PA public notices :
NOTICE CONTENT
NOTICE TO BIDDERS DOWNINGTOWN BOROUGH PROPERTY ACQUISITION, DEMOLITION & RESTORATION PROJECT Bids for the demolition and restoration of eight (8) properties (listed below) located within the 100-year floodplain of the East Branch of Brandywine Creek and its tributary Parke Run will be received by Downingtown Borough. The project involves providing all labor, supervision, equipment and materials to complete the demolition of the existing improvements such as slabs, foundation and retaining walls, pads, walkways, ornamental vegetation, as well as the work associated with site restoration and stabilization activities, including temporary erosion and sedimentation controls and restoring the public right-of-way areas (public curbs/sidewalks, roadways, etc.). Moreover, the Work also includes streambank stabilization and revegetation, wing-wall installation and bridge scour protection, furnishing, placement and compaction of clean fill material to bring the sites to grade, furnishing and placement of topsoil, and final grading and seeding and mulching all disturbed areas. The project will also include the removal and proper disposal of demolition debris and rubble and providing all labor, equipment and materials to complete asbestos abatement/removal within the structures as well as removal and proper disposal of all waste as specified prior to the demolition of the structures. The successful bidder will be responsible to confirm that the utility services to the properties have been disconnected and terminated with the various service providers. Note: The streambank stabilization and revegetation and wing-wall installation and bridge scour protection is only required at the 128 Brandywine Avenue property. This work also requires stream diversion and protection procedures. Property List •112 Brandywine Avenue, Downingtown, PA 19335 •114 Brandywine Avenue, Downingtown, PA 19335 •121 Brandywine Avenue, Downingtown, PA 19335 •123 Brandywine Avenue, Downingtown, PA 19335 •125 Brandywine Avenue, Downingtown, PA 19335 •126 Brandywine Avenue, Downingtown, PA 19335 •127 Brandywine Avenue, Downingtown, PA 19335 •128 Brandywine Avenue, Downingtown, PA 19335 Bidders are required to comply with the Pennsylvania Prevailing Wage Act of 1961, P.L. 987, No. 442, where the project cost is twenty-five thousand dollars or above. Funding for this project is provided by FEMA/PEMA to acquire and demolish the properties that have been impacted by flooding from hurricane Ida. The bid documents and attachments can be viewed through PennBid (www.PennBid.net) or at the office of Downingtown Borough located at 4 W. Lancaster Avenue, Downingtown, PA 19335 beginning on October 4, 2024 at 10:00 a.m. local prevailing time. Sealed bids must be submitted online through the PennBid electronic procurement program prior to November 5, 2024 at 10:00 a.m., at which time they will be opened publicly and read aloud at the office of the Downingtown Borough. An optional prebid meeting and site walk-through will be held at the Borough address above for all prospective bidders at 10:00 AM local prevailing time on October 15, 2024. Bids and bid security shall be furnished in accordance with the instructions to bidders. Bidders shall submit proof of qualifications to perform the work as described in the instructions to bidders. Downingtown Borough reserves the right to waive technicalities and to reject any or all bids or items herein in the best interest of the Municipality. Technical questions concerning this work and directions to Downingtown Borough and properties should be directed to Mr. Matthew Bush of JMR Engineering, LLC at (484) 880-7342. DLN 10/4, 10/10; 1a
All of these houses have been acquired by the Borough of Downingtown for demolition because of the flooding.
Yes this is unpleasant, but so is the flooding and it’s not the first time it flooded badly there. All you have to do is go to the Downingtown Historical Society website. 
https://www.downingtownhistory.org/flood-of-1942
No one wants to lose homes in a community. No one wants to lose historic homes that means something to people in a community, but sometimes the truth of why something is happening is not so simplistic as “it’s wrong.”
DOWNINGTOWN — The damage wrought by a summer disaster continues to break hearts in the borough.
Efforts for the recovery from the damaging floodwaters of Ida, a tropical storm which struck the Northeast on September 1, inspired citizens to share their stories — from fears and woes to concerns and hopes for the immediate present and near future — at the Downingtown Borough Council on Wednesday night which lasted nearly three hours….Residents who spoke of personal and local devastation suffered from the floodwaters of Ida included Randall Scott, John McMichael, Megan Stellfox, Dawn McMichael, Sara Brown, Lorraine Geiling, Patrick Moffitt, Patricia Moffitt, Gina Curry and Joann Widener, among others.
The United States Department of Homeland Security Federal Emergency Management Agency sent representation to the Downingtown Council meeting to share information.
“It breaks my heart,” said Dague upon listening to the residents who spoke up on Wednesday, many sharing they needed help still in wake of the storm. “A lot of people were upset that FEMA was turning them down.”
The mayor added that there was a FEMA representative at the meeting who hopefully shared resources with the residents who attended. FEMA has been in Downingtown every day for the past three weeks or so.
Now, a month and one week since Ida struck Downingtown, a storm that also resulted in the death of one borough resident, many people remain unable to return to their homes, even as winter months swiftly approach…”It’s weeks later. It’s better. We’re living our lives because we don’t have a choice,” said Downingtown resident Gina Curry while addressing elected officials at the Borough Council meeting on October 7.
A resident who suffered considerable flood damage to her home and property, Curry said she begged for help, and received the support that she had desperately sought when she reached out to the borough and asked.
“But a lot of people can’t. They won’t,” Curry said of fellow residents suffering in silence still from damages to their homes caused by Ida.
Floods are common occurrences in Downingtown when there is rainfall.
Curry said, “I am terrified every time it rains.” …..Downingtonian John McMichael said there are so many dams in the community, which creates an excess amount of waterflow to the borough.
“Eighty percent of Chester County floods out because of over-development,” McMichael said.
Many people who spoke during public comment Wednesday night concurred that some people in town remained without electricity while others had suffered in want of food because of ongoing power outages first sparked during the storm.
Dague estimated that at least 30 homes still remain completely unoccupied.
That man quoted above said 80% of Chester County floods because of over development. I don’t know if his percentage is correct but it is a huge contributing factor along with climate change. So if people want to get upset, get upset with your state legislators, who won’t update the Municipalities Planning Code to preserve our communities and stop the rampant march of development in our county and region and statewide.
The people who owned these properties chose to sell to FEMA and PEMA. and I can tell you, I know if neighborhoods in North Wayne, who maybe wished they had had the option after a hurricane years ago to sell out to FEMA or PEMA except they listened to a commissioner who told them it would be fine. And it’s not fine on some of these streets in Radnor Township in North Wayne every time there’s a bad rain storm. And maybe if those homeowners had been bought out back then they would’ve had the ability to be able to afford to stay in their communities. I don’t know that most of them would have that affordability or option today.
We have to hit the brakes on development, especially in light of climate change because we all know that these storms were getting that used to be reserved. The lofty titles like 100 year storm or 200 year storm or 150 year storm or whatever are happening too often.
These old houses in Downingtown are sadly what is known as collateral damage, and so are the renters in them. I don’t know that they’re all rental properties but I suspect a lot of them were.
I apologize to people who might not understand why I’m writing this post and think that I should be fighting to save these houses. I can’t save these houses, it’s literally not my place, and having seen the damage that water can do, you sadly come to the realization we can’t save everything because people can’t keep losing everything they own every time it rains.
Truly, I’m sorry. 
Enjoy what’s left of a beautiful day.
