In 1937, Maysville homes and businesses were flooded with the raging waters of the Ohio River. The river crested at 75.2 feet, according to Maysville Public Works Director Jim Fryman, slightly more than 25 feet above flood level.
The impact of the flood on Maysville prompted the construction of the floodwall for flood control protection, now familiar to everyone who lives in and around the area. Built to accommodate a flood reaching three feet higher than the 1937 flood, the river has never again reached the point of the 1937 flood. However, the floodwall has proved itself on occasion to be well worth the multi-million dollar investment in 1949 when construction began.
“It’s never been tested at the limit of the ’37 flood,” said Fryman. However, if the floodwall had not been present in 1997, Maysville would once again have faced flooding.
“It’s a good thing the people before us saw a need to protect the community,” Fryman said. “(The floodwall) has been a big plus.”
From end to end the floodwall is 14,080 feet long, including 7,774 feet of concrete wall and 6,306 feet of earth levy. It ranges in height from 11 feet to 30 feet, depending on terrain.
Three feet of the concrete wall lies under the ground, and Fryman explained the wall is built at a sort of “L” shape, so that when the intense pressure of the Ohio River presses against the one side, the wall will be able to sustain the pressure and Maysville will not become the victim New Orleans was when Hurricane Katrina hit and the levy broke.
Fryman said in New Orleans the floodwall was set on soft, sandy ground. It was a straight wall, and the pressure of the water caused the wall to move allowing water underneath to wash out the soil. Where the wall was very weak, Fryman said the water moved the whole wall, causing pieces of the floodwall to be discovered at various points some distance away.
“That’s the difference between their system and our system here,” Fryman said.
In 1997, when the river crested at 61.19 feet, 28 feet above the normal 33.2 foot pool, Fryman said several of the 11 floodwall openings were closed, including at Limestone Landing, on Rosemary Clooney Street and Rosemary Clooney Alley. What closures are activated depends on the height of the river, Fryman said, with the first closure initiated when the river reaches 55 feet.
It is Fryman’s decision when a closure is to be put in, and he said when the water is on the rise he pays close attention to the levels in order to make those judgment calls. The openings in the wall are closed well ahead of any threat the river may pose, Fryman said.
The floodwall system includes five pump stations which pump the overflow of water from drainage or rain from the city side into the river.
“All of our pumps are automatic,” Fryman said. “Once we kick them on, they run themselves.”
Each pump station also only goes online depending on the rise of the water.
The Limestone Landing pump station is the biggest station, Fryman said, with three 300 horsepower motors with the ability to pump 40,000 gallons of water per minute. The next largest station is at Wall Street, which has 250 horsepower pumps capable of pumping 22,100 gallons per minute. Other than those two stations, Fryman said other pump stations have pumps of 100 to 200 horsepower, and most stations have two pumps.
Fryman said the pumps will kick on at various points as the water level rises. When the water reaches one level one pump will kick on. When it surpasses a point the one pump can handle, a second pump will kick on, then the third.
Fryman said all the equipment is original in the pump stations, though some maintenance work has been done to keep them up to par.
“We have replaced a few transformers,” Fryman said.
During the 1997 flood, it was not the river that posed the greatest threat of flooding, Fryman said, but the amount of rainfall the other side of the floodwall received. Fryman said the Limestone station could not handle the water and it was starting down Second Street at one point.
“It was quite a scene,” he said. “That would be our biggest problem.”
Rain aside, Fryman said the floodwall can handle the water on the river side.
“The floodwater that is out there will stay out there,” Fryman said.
Contact Misty Maynard at 606-564-9091, ext. 274.