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The problem began with the 1965 upper
Mississippi flood when the dike road for Dam 5 was overrun into a backwater area
which flows down through Whitman dam wildlife area , Indian Creek and
Merrick Park and then rejoins the Mississippi pool 5A by Fountain City .
The overrun was so severe that it back flowed through Cochrane and into a low
area of Buffalo City causing those area to be marked as a A-10 zone . A back
flow dike was quickly built that remains unrecognized for flood mapping and
zoning even though it was proven in 2001 . The 2001 flood was a very good test
not only because of the height of the river but because of the time that the
river stayed high which was close to a month forcing the water table up with
great intensity . Under that extreme test the dike work perfectly even with
the overrun from the dike road for Dam 5 thereby proving the Cochrane back flow
dike as functional and effective under nearly worst case circumstances and was
never near overrun or near failure condition in 2001 unlike the dike road for
Dam 5 which was overrun and damaged which has since been repaired . Well over
half of the City is still listed as a SFHA ( Special Flood Hazard Area
)
Flood Map
555550B forcing lenders to require borrowers to purchase costly high risk flood
insurance based on a freak occurrence that happened in 1965 not taking into
account the real and actual conditions that exist now some 40 plus years latter
.
Flood Level Benchmarks
| Merrick State Park |
Dam 5A Spillway |
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With the exception of 1951 and
1952 all other years follow a 4 year cycle the years that follow the 4
year cycle are
1965 , 1969 , 1993 , 1997 , 2001 , if this pattern continues the
years to watch for high water are
2009 , 2013 , 2017 , 2011 etc... |
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