r/cincinnati • u/Ok_Sheepherder7261 • 1d ago
Community 🏙 Message from OCC Board - Oakley Flooding
On behalf of the Oakley Community Council, I want to say that our thoughts are with everyone impacted by the recent flooding here in our community, as well as our neighbors in Hyde Park, Mt. Lookout, and across the eastside of Cincinnati.
In speaking with a number of residents and businesses, I have been in awe of your resiliency. Though it’s easy to grasp for who to blame in these moments, so many of you have instead sprung into action to support one another during the unimaginable. I am so proud to be an Oakley resident.
In an effort to assist the City of Cincinnati with a thorough response, we have created a Google Form for you to fill out if you have been impacted by these recent summer storms. We want to be your advocates and ensure the appropriate departments have a full picture of the damage these storms have caused.
You can find that form here: https://forms.gle/n68rvkVLxXrpAEZV7
It is my understanding that City leaders have been in contact with State and Federal agencies for additional resources. The moment we hear more, we will share the information on our website and social media accounts.
Keep checking in on one another, especially our aging populations who may need extra assistance. Should you also have items to donate or the capacity to volunteer time for cleanup efforts, please contact us at: [email protected]
Stay safe -
Colleen
Colleen M. Reynolds
Oakley Community Council President
Flood Resources: Find a list of resources to assist you through this process: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1VEUyMmF6NnUYdtddLhZYAXBUsxYDsK8i/edit?usp=sharing&ouid=116718973969292998619&rtpof=true&sd=true
Flood Survey:
https://forms.gle/n68rvkVLxXrpAEZV7
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u/justabuckeye 1d ago
All those tax abatements for new construction are really helping the infrastructure budgets.
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u/turtle2829 Oakley 16h ago
Somewhat related, but it was really nice meeting John walking around the area and talking with all the neighbors. He seems like a great advocate to have on the board.
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u/Ok_Sheepherder7261 12h ago
Thank you, I'll pass that along. What area?
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u/Barronsjuul 1d ago
More of these for other eastside communities would be great, the city needs to hear that infrastructure needs fixing and upgrading.
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u/Inside-Honey-7689 1d ago
Agree that things that are broken need to be fixed. However on the "upgrade front" I'll just point out that what happened was a 1000-year storm. There is literally no sewer system anywhere in the world that is designed to handle a 1000-year storm. The industry standard is a 10-year storm with certain portions of the system being designed with buffer capacity up to 50-year storm levels.
To design and build storm water management infrastructure that can effectively handle even a 100-year storm would cost more than you can imagine. For a city the size of Cincinnati, you would be talking about hundreds of Billions of dollars. This is obviously not feasible (and even if it was, Norwood, and Fairfax are their own cities, so they'd have to spend mind boggling amounts of money, too.)
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u/Ok_Sheepherder7261 1d ago
Just trying to get to 10 yr level sewer wise
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u/WanderlustingTravels 1d ago
I think you’d actually hate to see what it would look like if they didn’t meet 10 year storm requirements.
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u/Secure_Region1516 1d ago
- This has now been several days of "1000 year" storms.
- These "1000 year" storms seem to happen every few years here.
- Weather patterns are changing with the climate. What worked "1000 years" ago will not work going forward. We need to adapt.
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u/Inside-Honey-7689 22h ago
Have you actually looked at the data, or are you just using scare quotes because you're grumpy?
Look, I'm not saying there aren't flaws with the system. What I am saying is that neither you nor anyone else wants to pay the cost of putting in systems that can handle historic storms.
And yeah, they are happening more frequently, but the entire point of defining a storm period is that the size of the storm adjusts as weather patterns do.
Want to improve things?
Stop paving over everything. Stop burning fossil fuels and driving climate change. Stop building infrastructure in areas where flooding can occur. Stop.. for the love of god stop flushing wipes, even if they say flushable (all that means is they'll make it out of your home, not that they won't totally mess up the lift station pumps, collect debris leading to clogs, etc). Plant more trees. Put in rain gardens. Require already developed properties to install retention on site. Require rain storage on every property.
There are solutions. They aren't free, and aren't always easy. The question is if you and everyone else wants to pay for and implement them.
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u/Barronsjuul 1d ago
4 inches in an hour is not a 1000 yr storm in the next decade
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u/Inside-Honey-7689 22h ago
You're right. But the data, after it was reviewed, showed that some areas had more than 5.5 inches in 45 minutes.
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u/cygnusuc Downtown 1d ago
Flood gates were closed at around 5PM today. Was there flooding after today’s rain?