River Expected To Crest At 33 Feet

The National Weather Service has predicted that the Ohio River will crest at 33 feet by Tuesday afternoon, that’s ten feet above flood stage.Metropolitan Sewer District Executive Director Bud Schardein says the agency is working nonstop to ensure that the city is prepared.“Staff has been working those stations 24 hours a day, they’ll continue to do so as the river rises, as of our briefing this morning the river was at 29.8 feet on the upper gauge," he says "so you can see that we’re about 7 feet above flood and we haven’t been at normal pool since the early part of February.”In 29 miles of flood walls and levees, there are 53 openings for traffic. So far, only 6 have been closed. Metropolitan Sewer District Executive Director Bud Schardein says one opening between the Presbyterian Parking Garage and Yum! Center was recently upgraded to make it easier to maneuver.“It’s a swinging gate closure and we shut it yesterday and that closure before we put the swinging gate in took two day sand about ten persons 2 days to put in," Schardein says "it took 45 minutes to close that structure yesterday.”All 16 of the city’s flood pumping stations are currently active, including 2 of the 3 largest inland flood pumping stations in the world.Schardein says there have been no official reports of flooded homes within the protection system.