The Cincinnati area got between two and three inches of rain over the weekend, with some snow on top of that. Christine Aiena with the National Weather Service says that water has or is flowing into the Ohio River now.
“We had a really heavy swath of rain from the southwest to northeast, all the way from southwestern Kentucky, Indiana area, all the way to eastern Ohio and Pennsylvania,” she says. “So much of this rain fell right through the Ohio River watershed. So we’re expecting quite a bit of water to get dumped into the Ohio (River.)”
Aiena says the river should climb to just above 54 feet by Tuesday. Flood stage is 52 feet.
At 54 feet, the Little Miami River usually starts backing up, and there's flooding around Newtown. Several streets in the East End and California will be underwater, along with the Sawyer Point Amphitheater.
“Riverside Drive down in Covington is probably going to flood at this level,” she says. “We look a little bit father upstream and downstream, we’re also going to see flooding, low lying areas, in New Richmond in Clermont County, and we look in the other direction, there’s Water Street in Aurora, Indiana.”
Jake Ryle with the Kentucky Transportation Cabinet says it's not just the Ohio River.
“We are noticing some roads that are having to be closed or blocked off in certain locations because of those creeks and those rivers.”
Ryle says they are posting a list of closed roads online and on social media.
“We did have one mudslide that was reported on KY 6335 in Campbell County, but that was cleared actually late last night/early this (Monday) morning,” Ryle says. “Everything else you’re seeing on those roads are actually high water that’s blocking the road.”
Ryle says barricades stay up until the water goes down, and engineers can make sure the road isn't damaged.
“We’ve already had several reports from our maintenance crews seeing several folks deciding to drive around the signage,” he says. “We need people to make sure when they see the signs that they turn around and don’t drown.”
Aiena says in addition to that saying, plan ahead. “Things that we recommend — especially with this river starting to rise — please just know your location,” she says. “Make sure you have a plan. Know which streets may have water on them. Have a backup exit route from your neighborhood if you need to.”
Aiena says this flooding is pretty much right on schedule.
“We actually haven’t hit flood stage for the Ohio River at Cincinnati for a little bit of time here,” she says. “The last time we hit flood, officially, was in March 2021.”
Aiena says there have been several crests since then, but none hitting the flood stage of 52 feet.
“But all those high crests were in February, April, March.”
The forecast for the Ohio River as of Monday afternoon shows the level dropping below flood stage Friday.
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