In Kansas City, flooding is a major issue.  Several people lost their lives during the 1998 flood.  Even more have died or been seriously injured in past events such as the 1977 Plaza flood.  Businesses along Southwest Boulevard historically have had up to 10 feet of water in their establishments about every 5 years. 

What is flooding?  According to the dictionary, “flooding” is defined as “an expanse of water submerging land.”  Practically, when we talk about the problems associated with flood waters, we define flooding as the inundation of normally dry areas. 

 

As a matter of practice, some areas in our community are left as open spaces for flood waters to inundate.  Flood waters then only become a problem when then inundate an area that is normally dry because we have probably built a structure or road in that area.  It is very difficult for a community to know for a certainty what land is going to stay dry.  One way to determine the risk of the land flooding is to predict and map floodplains. 

Why do we have a 100- year flood two years in a row?  The term "100-year flood," is used to describe the recurrence interval of floods.  The "100-year recurrence interval" means that a flood of that magnitude has a one percent chance of occurring in any given year. In other words, the chances that a river will flow as high as the 100-year flood stage this year is 1 in 100. Statistically, each year begins with the same 1-percent chance that a 100-year event will occur.

Buildings located in a floodplain have a statistically higher chance of flood damage because of their proximity to a stream or river and the elevation of the building.  Currently, Kansas City has about 2,000 buildings in the 100-year floodplain.  As part of the Wet Weather Solutions Program, Kansas City adopted an ordinance to keep new buildings out of the floodplain by setting them back from the stream or river. Approximately 1,000 infrastructure projects have been identified in 35 watershed studies the City has prepared to address flooding of the existing high risk structures.

How will flooding problems be addressed?  As our city grows, so does the amount of stormwater running off of hard surfaces such as parking lots, rooftops, streets and sidewalks.  More hard surfaces mean less green space where rainwater used to fall and soak into the ground. Poor grading can cause water to enter buildings and homes. 

The Wet Weather Solutions Program will address flooding by:

• Reducing the amount of stormwater runoff
• Investing in system maintenance
• Removing structures from the floodplain
• Keeping structures out of high-risk areas in the future
• Increasing system capacity
• Flood-proofing structures

There are also things that residents can do to minimize the impacts of flooding & improve water quality such as building a rain garden, installing a rain barrel, and disconnecting your downspouts from the sewer system. Visit How Citizens Can Help to find out more.