Evansville Flooding Revisited

About 5 weeks ago, I posted about some flooding that Evansville was experiencing that affected the Greenway space. It's gotten worse.

Since last week Friday, it's rained everyday. If it counts, it rained while I was sleeping last night so I will count that as raining today. It has rained since providing a little relief, but it is not going to solve any of the major issues immediately.

Being right on the Ohio River and relatively close to the Mississippi River, major rainfall can wreak havoc in Evansville (as well as other areas in southwestern Indiana, southern Illinois and western Kentucky). Both rivers are considerably backed up right now so the water flowing through Evansville on Pigeon Creek has nowhere to go...except over the banks.

The problem is twofold. First the city has a very poor and outdated sewer system. As the city expanded, the sewers did not which pushes more run-off into the same space.

The biggest problem, in my opinion, is that the county does not have a sewer system. It relies on creeks and tributaries to move the water. They have not been dug out in any way withing he city or county to contain large amounts of water, like the Kinnickinnick River that runs through Milwaukee, Wis. (see picture).

Anyways, I rode around Evansville today to get some pictures of the flooding. Luckily, I didn't have to go anywhere because I would be severly limited with where I could go considering the amount of inaccessible roads. Click on any picture to see a larger version.


This is the intersection of Kenucky Ave and Christ Road. On my bike, this is the only road I can take to get to the west side of town. While I didn't go any further, I'm sure there are other sections of the road that are covered. There are some houses that likely have sandbags around them as I have seen water approaching them earlier in the year.


Little League baseball fields that have been engulfed by water from a smaller creek that funnels into Pigeon Creek.


This house is on the west side of Hwy 41. It is n the other side of the baseball fields on St. George Road.


You can see the bridge in the distance going over Pigeon Creek. The bridge has a metal deck and is not solid. Bike riders are supposed to walk over the bridge for safety.




Here are two houses with water approaching them. I took these to see the amount of sandbagging that has been put up.


Green River Road used to be impassable before they overhauled it. They raised it up and added some bridges. They are putting the last round of asphalt on which allowed me to get off my bike and snap this picture. Iif not for the recent work done, this road would be covered.


This is a picture of a field on the other side of the road.


This is Hirsch Road right off of Green River Road. It is a farm road that doesn't get a lot of attention, except that i use it to get to one of the EBC rides. This field is virtually connected to the field in the last picture.


Here is a close-up from the last picture showing a mailbox in the middle of the water.




This is a bridge on Morgan Ave, which is a major artery of town. The road was closed by the bridge because water was starting to creep over. This actually isn't bad right now I was able to ride through it. About four years ago, the bridge was completely covered. With rising water, I believe they are planning for the worst.

There have been a couple of trailer parks that have been evacuated. The downtown area is constructing temporary floodwalls along the Ohio River. While I didn't know any better when we moved down here, I'm glad we bought a house on a hill.

If you want to see some more pics, you can see what the Evansville Courier & Press provided on their site.