On a Sunday morning in early 1997, heavy rains in the Mud River watershed flooded the town of Milton. Water covered U.S. 60 through the middle of town. A snake swam down the street until it decided to climb the outer wall of an office building. Volunteers in a small boat went from home to home in the flooded areas looking for people who may have been trapped.
That flood and the $25 million in property damage it caused might have been prevented if Milton had had a floodwall. Now the money to build such a floodwall has become available, and this evening Milton residents can tell planners their thoughts on what is being proposed.
The Huntington District of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers will conduct a workshop and public meeting from 4:30-6:30 p.m. in the Milton Middle School cafeteria at 1 Panther Trail in Milton.
Corps representatives will have tables set up with information on the project and will be available for one-on-one discussions. The public meeting presentation will begin at 6:30 p.m. followed by a question-and-answer segment finishing around 8:30 p.m.
The meeting will give residents a chance to see the current designs for the Lower Mud River Flood Risk Management Project. The goal of the project is to reduce the effects of flooding to the central business district of Milton from the Mud River, said project manager Brian Lowe.
The Flood Risk Management Project design consists of an earthen levee with sections of concrete floodwall built along the Mud River, Lowe said. The upstream tie end of the project will be around 84 Lumber in Milton. The downstream tie in will be near the Cooper Family Farm Corn Maze and will end near the Gables development, Lowe said.
Once the levee and floodwall mix are constructed, the chances of areas in the central business district flooding in any given year Ƶ which is currently very high Ƶ would significantly decrease, Lowe said. The floodwall/levee is being designed to bring MiltonƵs chance of flooding in a given year to less than 1%.
ƵIt would take an event thatƵs fairly large to be able to exceed whatƵs designed,Ƶ Lowe said.
Not all communities can have a floodwall. Many of them are too small to justify the expense of building and maintaining one. And for others, building one would eliminate the community the floodwall would protect. An example of that is the village of Pomeroy, Ohio, which sits on a narrow strip of land between a hill and the Ohio River. During last weekƵs highwater, the river entered downtown businesses facing it. But building a floodwall to protect those businesses would mean removing those businesses, so Pomeroy has learned to live with flooding.
After decades of flooding, Milton has the opportunity for relief. Tonight is the publicƵs best chance to review plans for the floodwall and let planners know what works and what doesnƵt. ItƵs an opportunity that should not be passed up.
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