DAYTON — The flooding over the last several days carried a shipping container to RiverScape MetroPark near the bike path.
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Rangers told us the container belongs to a company that is doing work on State Route 4, but the container is no longer there.
The company said it would move it when it was safe to do so, but this shows just how powerful that water is.
News Center 7’s Xavier Hershovitz was in Montgomery County and talked with crews about managing river levels and preventing serious flooding.
“Every day, every other day, anytime it’s nice,” Shirley James of Dayton said.
James loves walking the Miami Valley’s trails.
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“I got two new knees a couple years ago, and I started where I could walk again, and I’m just trying to get in shape,” she said.
But lately her favorite trail has been difficult to navigate.
“There are just huge puddles. Unless you’re going wading, you have to go up, which there’s a little side street, but there’s really no room to walk,” she said.
When you come across flooded trails like at RiverScape MetroPark, the Miami Conservancy District said that’s not a sign of a problem, but that the system is actually working.
“You can see that the river level got up to at least this part here,” Mike Ekberg, manager of water monitoring and analysis for the Miami Conservancy District, said.
The district keeps a close eye on river levels, making adjustments as needed, to make sure water stays where it’s supposed to be and prevent serious flooding.
“We just kind of buckle down and get ready, we’re watching the forecast,” Ekberg said. “You know, it really takes a team effort here.”
The system has been in place for 100 years, keeping people and property safe, and they’re prepared for any additional rain in the forecast.
The district is also looking toward the future and keeping this system in working order.
“We’re reaching a point where the infrastructure, you know, needs some major overhauls, and it’s important that the region understands that, and you know that continues to be willing to fund this system,” Ekberg said.
Once water levels go back down, crews will be out to clean up any debris, unless Shirley beats them to it!
“I’ve been out, that’s what I was up today doing, that’s what I was out yesterday doing,” she said.
Keeping the trails in working order, one step at a time.
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