CINCINNATI (WKRC) - Dozens of local roads have been closed at some point the past few days because of high water, but it's landslides causing problems at a familiar trouble spot.
Columbia Parkway was closed between Kemper Lane and Bains Street, just east of downtown due to a landslide, but it reopened in both directions Tuesday evening.
Cincinnati is known as the City of Seven Hills, but we may be down to five-and-a-half hills soon because of all the landslides.
"In my experience in four years, they seem to be increasing," said Hamilton County Emergency Management's director, Nick Crossley.
Parts of Columbia Parkway have been closed twice in the past couple of weeks because of hillside slippage. On Straight Street, not too far from the University of Cincinnati, a landslide brought down mud and trees and two cars were damaged. No one was hurt.
So what causes this? Too much rain with not enough ability for the ground to absorb it. But not a flash flood, where trees and mud can get pushed downhill quickly, but rather continuous rain.
"It's just over time, and there seems to be an increase in rain in the metro the last couple of years. And we've had the wettest three months that we've had in a long time that we're not giving the ground enough time to dry out. So when the ground has time to dry out, we don't see the landslides. Here, it's just been rain after rain after rain, and eventually something gives," said Crossley.
The City of Cincinnati has nearly 50 miles of retaining walls. They're inspected every six years for movement. Lately, the walls have held. It's the land above that moves. If it's private property, it's your expense. If it's public property, the government pays.
The city has about $700,000 budgeted for hillside stabilization and wall repairs in 2019. Short term, it's just a cleanup. Long term:
"Everybody will have to start looking at landslide-prone areas, and Columbia Parkway's not the only one. We'll have to start either mitigating them ourselves or applying for mitigation funds and starting to figure out a way to -- especially Columbia Parkway, which is a major artery into the city and out of the city -- that I'm sure the city is looking at ways to work on that problem," said Crossley.
