The city of Staunton has launched an $80,000 flood monitoring system designed to alert residents and businesses of impending flash floods. WMRA's Randi B. Hagi reports.
[Lewis Creek rushes by]
Staunton is built on top of Lewis and Peyton creeks, which converge in a tunnel underneath the Wharf District parking lot. That, plus the fact that much of the city lies in a floodplain, has made the town particularly vulnerable to floods – like those that battered homes and businesses in August of 2020.
PETER KESECKER: I mean, these old cities were built on the stream so they could put their mills there, and … then, over time, business owners started building overtop of the streams.
Peter Kesecker is the city's environmental programs administrator. His office recently installed four water level monitors in the streams and six rain gauges on the outskirts of town, with the goal of figuring out what amounts of rainfall correlate to how much the creeks will rise. Residents can sign up to receive an alert when a certain monitoring location is showing a flood risk.
KESECKER: We're trying to just give them as much lead time – 20 to 30 minutes would be a real bonus in the flash flood circumstances.
The system went online on Friday, just in time for the weekend thunderstorms.
KESECKER: Most of the streams went up anywhere from a foot to two feet. There's one monitor in particular off of Central Avenue, right there at the Domino's, and that channel is narrower. … And it rose almost three feet and then back down within a 40 minute period. That kind of data over time is really going to help us to understand how much time we have to put the alert system in place.
The architectural and engineering firm Wiley Wilson is currently examining the tunnel to see what improvements can be made. Kesecker said one option would be to open up the parking lot in that area and create a green space that includes the stream.
