City officials assess flooding

June 15, 2009 08:47 am

— By Ronnie Ellis / CNHI News Writer
Corbin city officials spent much of Thursday night and all day Friday trying to assess why flooding was so severe Thursday afternoon.
Mayor Willard McBurney was back and forth Friday with city manager Bill Ed Cannon and state engineers between drains and catch basins throughout the city.
“The problem was there was just so much rain at once, the drains and catch basins just couldn’t handle it,” McBurney said.
According to the National Weather Service office in Jackson, Corbin received more than two inches of rain in about 12 hours Thursday. NWS meteorologist Tony Edwards said the ground was already so saturated that the area only required about an inch of rain in a three-hour period to cause flooding. Instead, it got about 1.5 inches in about an hour.
Fifth Street, Third Street and Master Street all had problems as well. Fifth was closed for two hours Thursday afternoon, while traffic had to be diverted on Master Street.
McBurney said state engineers spent most of Friday inspecting drains around the city, including areas near Exit 25 off I-75, and they think they have a solution for the problem there.
Rebecca Johnson lives on Third Street, and her yard was flooded badly. “A river” flowing down from Sycamore Street through a neighbor’s yard, then across the street onto her property caused her flood problems.
She said the overflow comes from newly developed homes and townhouses on the hill above the area where her house is located.
“All the flooding is coming from up there,” said Johnson. “Evidently, they have not tied into the city drains.”
McBurney said the water is indeed coming from the newly developed area, but it’s not because of a deficiency in the new drainage system there.
“That entire area used to be grass and now it’s pavement, and it just runs off more quickly,” McBurney said. So quickly, that the water spreads out before it can be collected by the catch basin on Third Street.
“There was just too much water all at once for it to handle it,” he said.
There continues to be problems on Fifth Street, which McBurney said has the largest catch basin in the city.
But it’s not because the city isn’t cleaning the drain, the mayor said. He said the city has cleaned the drain twice in the past two months, as it happened each time before a significant rainfall which caused flooding in the area.
“Prior to the flooding two months ago,” McBurney said, “we cleaned that drain out and took out a shopping cart, bundled wire, boards, bicycle and lawn mower parts.” He said the city periodically checks on the nearby creek and cleans it of debris.
Part of the problem is dumping and part is runoff water picking up debris and depositing it in the basin.
“The creek up there has been cleaned, but it picks up things, too,” McBurney said. “People need to help by not putting things in there.”
Johnson thinks the city can do more and she’s complained the contractor on the development above her property should do something about the problem.
Thursday, she said, “oil cans, paint buckets, everything came down that hill and backed up in the yard. Every time it rains, that happens.”

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