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Posted: May 10, 2021

Great Miami River rises several feet in 24 hours

Over a 24-hour period between Sunday and Monday morning, the Great Miami River rose about 4 feet in Dayton and Hamilton after the region received between 1 and 2.2 inches of rainfall.

MCD’s flood protection system of dams and levees is working as designed, preventing floodwaters from affecting downtowns along the Great Miami River from Piqua to Hamilton. All five of MCD’s dams temporarily stored floodwaters on Sunday. Four of the dams—Lockington, Englewood, Taylorsville, and Huffman—continued to store water this morning. Storage begins when the river level rises to the top of the conduits (concrete openings) at the dams. (Germantown Dam is no longer storing water.)

Storage is expected to peak today at Lockington, Taylorsville, and Huffman dams; and at Englewood Dam tomorrow. While river levels have peaked in Piqua and Troy, they will continue to rise slightly today in other protected cities from Dayton to Hamilton.

MCD staff continues to monitor river levels and take action as necessary. Staff closed storm sewer floodgates in Piqua, Middletown, and Hamilton. Cities have storm sewer pipes running through MCD levees that drain city streets to the river. Floodgates built at the end of storm sewers remain open except when they are closed to prevent a rising Great Miami River from backing up into the storm sewer and into cities.

MCD’s flood protection system significantly reduces flood risk for riverfront cities along the Great Miami River. Following the 1913 Flood, MCD engineers designed the dry dams and levees you see along the Great Miami River. For nearly 100 years, these structures have protected cities from Piqua to Hamilton.