With the rising Ohio River now covering parts of Riverside Drive and lapping at the gap in the floodwall at the foot of Madison Avenue, the City of Covington has taken the first steps in its flood response plan.
Specifically, the sluice gates at Willow Run have been closed, barriers are blocking traffic from Riverside Drive, and the bottom row of the Madison Overlook floodgate has been installed.
Newport followed suit and installed its floodgate to forestall the water on the Newport Riverfront.
Water, water, water — John James Audubon bronze on Covington riverfront. (Photo provided)
And parts of Kentucky were underwater — and under the Governor’s emergency declaration. Nearly 50 counties and cities in Kentucky have issues disaster declarations in both eastern and western parts of the state. Over 194 county roads have been closed due to flooding and three counties reported power outages. Breathitt County had 5.48 inches of total rainfall and a dam under Kentucky Highway 15 in Jackson has been declared unsafe.
The good news for the NKY riverfront is that the river isn’t supposed to rise much higher. As of Wednesday morning, it was measured at 55 feet and was expected to crest Thursday at 56 feet, according to the National Weather Service’s Ohio River Forecast Center.
The water doesn’t start coming through the gate at the foot of Madison Avenue until about 57 feet, said Brad Schwenke, supervisor of the Covington Parks & Facilities Division in Public Works.
“The river is unpredictable and the forecast has been all over the place, so we’re mostly just being cautious,” Schwenke said. “Thank goodness we’re not seeing the widespread flooding that’s causing such damage down south in Eastern Kentucky.”
Schwenke said about a dozen Public Works crew members worked Monday and Tuesday to put together the many parts of the gate, which has been likened to a gigantic version of a child’s K’Nex or Erector set.
The first day crews installed anchors in the footer holes and filled about 500 sandbags. With the muddy river rushing by on Tuesday, they brought in a crane to lower the A-frame parts and the massive panels that span the gap in the floodwall.
After weeks full of double shifts spent plowing snow and spreading salt, the flood response was just another day in the life of the Public Works Department, Schwenke said.
“The gate has a lot of parts and takes time to put together, but we’re getting fairly quick about it,” he said. “With the weather being what it is, we just stay flexible.”
The Madison Overlook gate is one of seven in Covington and the first to be installed when the Ohio and Licking rivers start rising. It was erected once last year, once in 2019, twice in 2018 and once in 2015, after not being put up for over a decade.
