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Flooding lingers, but rivers begin to recede

A number of Five Rivers Metro Parks affected, with some closed and others offering limited access.

Additional inch of rain next two days may aggravate flooding

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By Steve Bennish, Staff Writer Updated 7:49 AM Tuesday, March 8, 2011

Although the rivers are receding, flooding is still putting a damper on the Great Miami Bikeway through downtown Dayton and a number of Five Rivers Metro Parks adjacent to rivers.

A two-day break in the rainfall should allow rivers and streams to continue to decline before rain hits again. The National Weather Service said that additional rain predicted for later this week shouldn’t cause more flooding, but could cause additional ponding on roadways because the ground is already saturated.

As night fell Monday, closed signs were up at Aullwood Garden MetroPark, Englewood MetroPark’s East Park, North Park and the bikeway, Huffman MetroPark, Island MetroPark and Taylorsville MetroPark’s South Park.

Several other areas within MetroParks were also flooded, and rangers cautioned that the parks might be hazardous. Parking lots were closed at Island and Englewood MetroParks as were bikeways at Island, Englewood and Eastwood.

Roadways where flooding was reported included Rip Rap Road between Little York and Taylorsville in Huber Heights and Tipp Canal and Tipp Elizabeth in Miami County, said deputy county engineer Jeff Poettinger.

Four Miami Conservancy District dams — Germantown, Englewood, Lockington and Taylorsville — were storing water Monday morning, but with the Great Miami receding, the levels were in decline. Huffman Dam storage crested at 15.6 feet at 11 p.m. Sunday and was no longer storing water Monday.

The Conservancy District said the Great Miami River Watershed received an average of about 2 inches of rain in the 24 hours between 8 a.m. Friday and Saturday.

The most precipitation was 2.35 inches in Piqua. The District said the average rainfall for the 24 hours between 8 a.m. Saturday and Sunday, was about 0.4 inches, with Eaton reporting the most rain at 0.56 inches.

Today, expect partly cloudy skies with a high temperature in the mid-50s. But rain should return late tonight and continue into Wednesday, the National Weather Service said.

The rainfall likely won’t cause more flooding, however, since the rivers and streams will have had time to return to near normal levels, said Mike Kurz, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Wilmington.

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