With the recent rain affecting the area, flooding has been a concern in the Ohio River Valley.
At IU Southeast, baseball and softball games scheduled to be played on Thursday, March 10, and Friday, March 11, at the Koetter Sports Complex were canceled due to wet conditions.
“The field is too wet,” Joe Glover, interim athletic director, said. “It would be too dangerous.”
The IUS baseball team‘s doubleheader was scheduled for March 10 against Taylor University, but it had to be rescheduled and played at Taylor University on March 11.
The IUS softball team was also scheduled to play Goshen University and Concordia University on March 11, but the fields were not ready for play until Saturday, March 12.
Goshen College was unable to travel here and play for just one day, so IU Southeast invited Taylor University to play on March 12.
Concordia still participated in the doubleheader against IU Southeast.
As for the rest of campus, the chances of significant flooding are slim-to-none.
“I’m not concerned,” Jim Wolfe, director of the Physical Plant, said, “because I can tell you that I’ve been here 18 months, and the second day I was here, they had a six-inch rain over in Louisville, and I spent most of that day walking around the buildings looking at leaks. It was leaking in a lot of places.”
Since that rain, many of the campus building’s roofs and windows have been replaced.
“We have replaced the Crestview roofs,” Wolfe said. “The Knobview roofs have been replaced. [The Service Building’s roof] is getting ready to be replaced. We’ve replaced the windows over in Crestview, which really looked really bad.”
The windows for other buildings, including Hillside Hall and the University Center, are scheduled to be replaced, as well.
“We’ve done a lot of things to correct a lot of leaks,” Wolfe said. “We’ve had a couple of minor leaks in the rain we’ve gotten recently but nothing major.”
The campus is also located on high ground, and it isn’t close enough to the Ohio River for other flood concerns to arise.
The ground here also tends to hold water well, and there are a lot of underground springs.
In the past, though, there has only been minor flooding.
“There are some offices that are below ground that have gotten flooded in the past,” Wolfe said.
If there ends up being a major concern for flooding on campus, there are emergency plans in place so that all of the IU campuses get together and figure out a solution.
“If we have a flood problem going on, IU Bloomington would be watching us very closely and getting ready to help us out,” Wolfe said. “We actually have an emergency action group now. It’s out of Indianapolis. Like when they had the big snow storms and ice storms up there, we were kind of running the operation as to, “What are you doing to take care of this?’ and helping getting things done.”
Since IU Southeast is not located on a flood plain, and since significant flooding is not expected on the campus, there is no actual flood plan in place.
Most of the concerns for flooding exist around New Albany and other local areas, especially near the Ohio River.
Matt Denison, president of the New Albany City Government Flood Control Board, said even though there is no imminent threats for any flood damage, there have been roads closed in the area.
Those roads include Water Street from East Sixth Street to West 10th Street near the New Albany Riverfront Amphitheater, Old Ford Road at Armstrong Bend and Rainbow Drive near Charlestown Road.
“One of the very first areas that’s right by the Riverfront Amphitheater where the boat ramp is at,” Denison said. “That little stretch is one of the first that is an issue. It blocks the road down there, and we have to shut that off. It’s no imminent danger to any businesses, citizens or houses or anything like that. It’s one of the first areas that floods.”
The flood wall, located on the outer areas of New Albany and along the riverfront, has levee gates, pumps and gates underground. The underground gates pump water toward the river.
“We basically have a plan from a group of engineers that tells us, the city officials, when we need to activate certain gates and when we need to turn on certain pumps,” Denison said.
The city also receives information about the predicted levels for the river from the National Weather Service. City officials then make their decisions.
No major concerns for flood damage in the New Albany area have come up, and the water level for the river would have to increase before those concerns arise.
“For citizens to be on highest alert is when it gets to the level where we actually have to shut the flood gates,” Denison said. “That’s a serious flood. Right now, we’re able to fight most of it by turning on some pumps and shutting down some underground gates.”
By JENNIFER
HARRINGTON
Staff
jeharrin@umail.iu.edu