Ohio County plans for Rough River gauge to report flooding

Sept. 24--Farmers and homeowners around the Rough River in Ohio County may be able to breathe a little easier during periods of severe rain thanks to a forthcoming river gauge.

The nearly $175,000 piece of equipment, which will be positioned on the U.S. 231 Bridge at Hartford, will be able to collect accurate and quick information about the Rough River in a previously unmonitored expanse of the waterway.

Charlie Shields, the Ohio County Emergency Management Agency director, said the gauge will give his agency the ability to communicate immediate information to federal agencies such as the National Weather Service and U.S. Army Corps of Engineers that was previously impossible.

"At the moment, there is no way to determine anything about the river downstream from Dundee," Shields said. "When the NWS calls us to ask about local flooding impact, we have to actually go the river and give a visual report."

Shields said the Ohio County EMA was able to receive a partial grant from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. The rest of the cost is being provided by a coalition of fundraisers from the Kentucky Farm Bureau Insurance in Ohio County and Natural Resource Conservation Service.

The nearest gauges to Hartford are currently in Dundee and Livermore, leaving unmonitored a swathe of about 23 miles of river crossing through Hartford. Shields said the lack of information about the area has meant unintentional flooding on farms and major roadways when the Rough River Dam releases water downstream.

Tyson Sandefur, an agent with Farm Bureau Insurance, said the agency and others were partnering because of the consistent crop damage local farmers see from flooding in the area.

"Down here, we can be flooding and the gauge at Dundee will have no correlation with what's going on at Hartford," Sandefur said. "With the number of river bottoms we have here, it's a big impact. If we had an electronic gauge at Hartford, the Army Corps at Rough River Dam could see the reactions of what is happening here."

Tyson said there are about 20 large farm operations in the river bottoms around Hartford that are damaged or disrupted by flooding. This past spring, Rough River flooding ruptured a levee near Hartford, impacting the farmers in the river bottoms.

Shields said past flooding has also closed Kentucky 136, the main thoroughfare for operations at one of Ohio County's largest employers, Perdue Farms.

Shields said paperwork for the grants were being finalized, and placement of the gauge would be announced at a later date.

Jacob Dick, 270-228-2837, [email protected], Twitter: @jdickjournalism

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