A year after historic South Bend area floods, damage remains, preventive measures planned
Because the 500-year flood came just 18 months after the 1,000-year flood of 2016,
Communities in
In
"We have seen some unprecedented, historic rainfall events," said city engineer
The city's
The city also is working with the
"This will be valuable information in future flood conditions," said city public works spokeswoman
In another project, the city and consultant
The city also has tried to enhance communications with residents during heavy rains. Its new website lets the
The city suffered flood damage to five pedestrian trails and its water filtration system's
The city already has spent about
The flood didn't lead to any policy changes in
The flood swamped
By spring, volunteers helped to clean up and restore a mud-filled
The city didn't see any of its sanitary sewer pipes collapse, which Jamrose credits to the city's efforts to rehabilitate sewage lines every year for the past decade.
The flood also washed out a portion of the state-owned
The city of
That includes everything that was affected, he said, including city property such as pumps at the wastewater treatment plant and a swamped
The city has made a couple of improvements to stormwater management that it hopes will help to curb future flooding in the city's lowest area downtown, Huff said.
Storm screw pumps at the wastewater treatment plant have been automated to kick on when stormwater hits a certain level. The city also struck a deal with the state on how it releases stormwater from its collection system to the river.
Huff said the improvements should help to control flooding in a heavy storm, but maybe not in a historical flood event like last year.
The biggest reminder today of last year's flooding is a still-closed
"We had no idea how bad it was going to be," he recalled.
Other city departments, such as Buildings and Grounds, whose own building was flooded, quickly learned that they'd play deeper roles in making decisions than expected -- and they saw how immediately their help was needed, Carey said.
No one was injured as emergency responders rescued or assisted 315 people in the city, using boats, vehicles and special suits to wade through the floodwaters, he said.
"We had people that refused to leave their homes, then a day later they wanted our help," Carey said, wondering how officials could have encouraged them to vacate. "We haven't got that figured out."
Among other damage, two of the city's lift stations went down temporarily in the flood, and now, since they've been repaired, the city is seeking ways to protect them -- with a levy, for example -- when a flood of this historic magnitude returns, said utility engineer
In
The city hasn't made any changes in policies, the mayor said, saying nothing could have stopped the flooding.
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