Cincy preps for a future of more extreme weather
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Local businesses, including Carl's Deli in Hyde Park, experienced major flooding in July. Photo: Courtesy of the Hyde Park Neighborhood Council
Weeks after flash flooding devastated Cincinnati's East Side, city leaders say the storms reinforced years of planning for a wetter future.
Why it matters: Officials say Cincinnati isn't getting much more rain overall. It's getting heavier rain in shorter bursts, pushing infrastructure beyond what it was designed to handle.
The big picture: That response is guided by the Green Cincinnati Plan, the city's long-term sustainability blueprint, updated every five years.
- The plan, approved by City Council in 2023, isn't law but rather is a guide for development, infrastructure investments and future policy.
- The plan calls for a mix of engineering projects, green infrastructure, housing, transportation and energy investments to make Cincinnati more resilient.
- "It's hard to say a catastrophic storm is good," Oliver Kroner, who leads the city's Office of Environment and Sustainability, tells Axios. "But I do think it puts an exclamation mark on the patterns we're seeing."
By the numbers: A rain gauge in Oakley recorded 5.62 inches during the July storm, including 5.04 inches in just 90 minutes, NOAA meteorologist Julia Dian-Reed tells Axios.
What they're saying: The extraordinary rainfall, not a sewer system failure, is what caused the flooding, Metropolitan Sewer District (MSD) director Diana Christy told a City Council committee on Tuesday.
- "Extreme storms can exceed the design capacity of any sewer system, even when the system is operating as designed," she said.
- MSD reported more than 1,900 claims of sewer backups.
Between the lines: Adapting will take more than bigger sewers because "these aren't solutions that MSD can deliver on its own," she said.
- In the short term, crews are working extra hours to inspect infrastructure, analyze damage and repair what they can after last month's flooding.
Zoom in: The Green Cincinnati Plan embraces what Kroner calls a "sponge city" approach — keeping more rain where it falls instead of rushing it into sewers.
- That means more trees, bioswales, permeable pavement and other green infrastructure that slows runoff and helps water soak into the ground.
- Kroner pointed to MSD's work at Lick Run Greenway and West Fork Creek as examples where green infrastructure has already reduced stormwater problems.
The last word: "It does help crystallize our collective understanding that change is happening before our eyes," Kroner said, "and that we are going to need to adapt our systems to accommodate that change."