By Saturday night, the rain has passed and the floor waters had crested and started to recede.
But the work to recover from the flooding continued through the weekend, a reminder that even short-term flooding can put a strain on resources for county and city governments.
And, at the risk of introducing a needly dispute over climate change, the truth is that the flooding incidents have increased and are likely to continue.
In Columbus, especially East Columbus, the impact of flooding is compounded by an earlier era, when areas could be developed with little to no restriction, even in flood plains. The result is that these areas are prone to flooding after heavy rainfalls of even short durations. And with each flooding incident, residents in the affected areas point the finger of blame are current city officials, most often wrongly suggesting that improper maintenance of creeks and storm drains is the primary cause when, in fact, the primary cause of flood is simple topography.
Today, those natural features are factored into development. As an example, when Mark Castleberry built his hotels on 18th Avenue, he was required to raise the elevation of the development by three feet — no small cost.
To suggest that local government is to the problem is unfair. If local government is to be blamed, the government officials who bear that burden have been long in their graves.
During Monday’s supervisors meeting, county road manager Ronnie Burns provided a snapshot of the impact of the heavy rains of Thursday and Friday.
“We had 14 roads closed at one time,” Burns said. “We’ve been working on this all weekend and we’re still working, filling potholes and and fixing the shoulders.”
Burns said the response was a collaborative effort and thanked county emergency services, the sheriff’s department and Columbus Fire & Rescue for working with the county to close roads, redirect traffic and assist in rescues resulting from people driving around barricades.
“It’s really been a team effort,” Burns said.
Unfortunately, these events are no longer rare occurrences.
This summer, when the Starkville Board of Aldermen addressed updates on the city’s codes, there was much discussion over the city’s storm-water requirements. Starkville, like Columbus, requires new development to formulate a plan to mitigate a 10-year storm event. The city engineer suggested a change in the code that would require developers to mitigate water run-off common to a 100-year event — 9.4 inches of rain over a 24-hour period. The city ultimately approved that standard despite pushback from developers who argued that providing that sort of mitigation could be so costly as to discourage growth.
Updating the code to make sure new development is held to a higher standard of mitigation doesn’t eliminate the problems where flooding is already prominent, but it doesn’t exacerbate it, either.
Obviously, a change in code requirements will do little to address flooding problems in those areas where it has been a problem for years. Addressing that problem will be costly — tens, if not hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars.
There’s simply no painless solution. For those existing developments, continued cooperation between government and non-profit services will be essential.
The Dispatch Editorial Board is made up of publisher Peter Imes, columnist Slim Smith, managing editor Zack Plair and senior newsroom staff.
You can help your community
Quality, in-depth journalism is essential to a healthy community. The Dispatch brings you the most complete reporting and insightful commentary in the Golden Triangle, but we need your help to continue our efforts. In the past week, our reporters have posted 41 articles to cdispatch.com. Please consider subscribing to our website for only $2.30 per week to help support local journalism and our community.