“That river’s up real high and rolling,” Porter said. “It has our construction project stopped.” Porter said approximately 30 employees are working to upgrade the sewer system for the city of Hamilton.
“We prepared for this yesterday. We saw the forecast and we spent Wednesday and Thursday preparing for this trying to get our equipment to high ground,” he said.
John Bui, director of underground utilities for the city of Hamilton, said the $11.9 million project began last summer and is scheduled to be completed by the end of September.
“It will carry waste water from the west side of the river to the east side and it’ll carry it to the waste water plant,” said Bui.”It helps mitigate overflow.”
Work was halted Friday due to high water and it wasn’t the first time that weather has delayed construction.
“The river came up in December it was a little bit higher than this,” said Porter.
He says work will resume once the water recedes, but Porter estimates the projects completion date will be delayed for at least a few weeks.
While strong, gusty winds continued Friday, they were not as severe or damaging as Thursday night’s storms. Heavy rain flooded some area roadways including Corwin Avenue near U.S. 42 in Waynesville. The Little Miami River overflowed its banks making the road look more like a lake.
“It floods about every time I guess because the water has no other place to go, it floods a lot,” said Gene Anspach, resident.
High water and road signs blocked motorists from continuing down Corwin Avenue, but in the past Anspach says that hasn’t stopped some people from driving across the road.
“Every now and then you’ll see a car stuck out there when people went pass it when they weren’t suppose to, it got too deep,” said Anspach.
Cold weather is expected to return after a brief reprieve of warmer temperatures this weekend.
By Wednesday, temperatures will be at about 10 to 20 degrees below average, according to WCPO-TV 9 First Warning Weather Meteorologist Sherry Hughes.
Hughes says our forecast next week is trending well below normal. By Thursday, the Tri-State’s lows are expected to dip back down into the teens.
Some long range forecast models are also suggesting a continuation of arctic air intrusion over the region in the weeks to come.
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