Columbus looks for flood-fixes after recent heavy rain
COLUMBUS, Miss. (WCBI) – Heavy rains and flash flooding have Columbus homeowners wanting solutions and city leaders floating ideas.
Jeff Davis has lived in the Bluecutt Estates area since 2007.
Over the years, Davis has seen drainage ditches fill up and spill over onto his property.
“Every time that it floods like this, my garage always floods,” Davis said.
So far, Davis said there hasn’t been any major damage, but the water gets high and his yard stays soggy.
“The water’s got no other place to go. It comes up my driveway, into my garage, and then covers the entire sidewalk and front porch of my house. And it has been right up to the edge of the top of my foundation,” Davis said.
High water has destroyed some items in his garage. Davis believes that if it had rained much longer on Monday, the inside of his home would have flooded.
“Insurance around here is so high and the deductible so high, most of the stuff’s not worth filing a claim for,” Davis said.
Davis says he would like city officials to come out and speak to homeowners about the specific issues people are facing and talk to public works about being more aggressive with the issue.
Ward 6 Councilman-Elect Jason Spears was vocal on social media as the waters rolled through.
He went through Ward 6 to look for system failures, what could be immediately addressed, and long-term plans.
Spears said he didn’t see a lot of drainage infrastructure, and much of what was there was outdated.
“You just have to go back and look at those old systems instead of trying to rebuild them, you just build new systems. In a way, you abandon certain things that aren’t working, and instead of trying to clean them out or clean the ditches, maybe you just have to build a new system to get that water away faster,” Spears said.
Spears believes some issues can be addressed by cleaning out drains or improving systems.
However, issues that come from the overflow of rivers and streams fall under the Army Corps of Engineers. That calls for a different set of methods to follow.
Funding is always a struggle. The future councilman hopes his recent evaluation can help all city leaders find a bigger solution.
“It can’t be all fixed all at once,” Spears said. “I mean, there still will be problems that exist four years from now, but I think the biggest thing is to really prioritize how we spend and how we plan in order to address as much as possible and then bring other parties into the system that might be able to help us trench out things or redirect systems so that so it does alleviate a lot of the problems for the citizens of Ward 6 and the city as a whole.”
Spears has heard from other city leaders. He believes the proactive response will lead to better discussions down the road.
Spears encourages people to share pictures and videos with the council in order to maintain fluid communication.
