Rising waters in WM under control

Rising waters in WM under control

No flooding in homes, say city officials as city’s drainage network put to the test by more than a foot of rain

news@theeveningtimes.com

West Memphis Mayor Bill Johnson was pleased to make the report that the city had weathered the February rainfalls. “There was not one report of water in any house,” said Johnson. “It’s amazing how much water fell.”

During February and including the morning of March 1, 13.5 inches of precipitation fell, against a normal monthly average of just under four inches of rain. City Engineer Amanda Hicks shared her observations.

“We stayed ahead of the storms for the most part,” said Hicks. “The city stayed dry.”

City drainage pumps were in good repair and ran according to procedure. The city budgeted funds to repair some broken pumps this year and Public Works and the Utility Department made quick work of it.

Every city pump was in service in time for the February deluge.

“They’ve all been fixed,” said Hicks. “We had them all running during the storms, and everything worked. Once the rain had quit and everything had leveled off, we shut some off. We can actually get back flow at Airport Road.

That area and Auburn gets a little retention and we couldn’t get that area emptied out if we kept the Rice Street pump on. We then keep those gates open because it will naturally flow out.”

The Westwood Acres sub- division has continued to benefit from two huge drainage basins. The basins

are almost three years old and have served to rectify chronic street and house flooding in that subdivision. Pumps were still evacuating water there Thursday morning.

“That retention area has helped us tremendously,” said Hicks.

“Westwood Acres has always been our tough spot,” said Johnson, “but, since we dug those holes we have had very few instances with water in homes.”

By John Rech