CINCINNATI — Two weeks after historic flash flooding struck the Tri-State, Cincinnati is still recovering as the Metropolitan Sewer District (MSD) works through hundreds of sewer backup reports and Hamilton County's emergency management agency continues to assess damage.
MSD has received more than 1,800 reports since the storms and more than 900 of them have met eligibility requirements for cleaning services through the agency's sewer backup program.
"Those are people calling us saying they have water in their basement or they believe they have a sewer backup, and then we are going out and investigating those," MSD Director Diana Christy said.
WATCH: Here's what MSD and EMA officials told Hamilton County commissioners about the ongoing storm recovery efforts
MSD crews have completed nearly all of the 1,800 report investigations. Christy said much of the investigative work happens in the street, not inside individual homes, which means some residents may not have seen crews at their door.
"Folks want us to be moving even faster but we're doing really everything we can," she said.
Some affected homeowners have raised questions over the last few weeks about whether the sewer system failed. Christy said that is not the case.
"This wasn't an operational issue," she said. "It is just beyond the capacity of what our sewers are designed to convey."
MSD Deputy Director and Chief Engineer Reese Johnson said both the volume and speed of rainfall were key factors in what overwhelmed the system.
"A concrete pipe can't expand to fit a larger storm, and so we design to a certain storm, and it can take all that it can take, and when it can't take any more, it floods," Johnson said.
The July 17 storms produced what's known as a 1,000-year storm event near Norwood, meaning a storm that is so severe that, statistically, it has about a one-in-1,000 chance of happening in any given year.
Johnson said MSD is fast-tracking 10 infrastructure projects aimed at addressing flooding hotspots across the county, following flood mitigation research.
"We pivoted and said, 'How can we find those smaller projects that are doable, that are more moderate in cost?'" Johnson said. "They're still millions of dollars, but they're not hundreds and billions of dollars. And we're proceeding with those as quickly as we can."
Johnson said completed infrastructure improvements would not have prevented damage from a storm like the one that happened on July 17.
"When a storm comes in, that is 10 times bigger than what we designed for, it's not going to keep it from happening, but it could lessen the impacts," Johnson said.
MSD has also reached out to the University of Cincinnati to study whether urbanization is contributing to increasingly intense storm patterns.
"It's recurring patterns, and it seems that urbanization has an impact on it, where we're seeing that that's causing storms to get more intense," Johnson said. "The numbers don't lie when you have storms of this rarity coming so frequently."
When asked about the scope of MSD's efforts to solve flooding issues, Johnson said the agency's infrastructure improvements are focused on the sewer system.
"Our solutions are focused on fixing the MSD infrastructure or improving the MSD infrastructure," he said. "(They) are there to take away the wastes and some of the stormwater, but they're not solving all the overland flooding that we see."
Hamilton County Emergency Management Agency Director Nick Crossley said the agency is still collecting damage assessments from impacted communities, including Cincinnati.
"Where we're at today is we are continuing with our damage assessment process," he said.
An emergency declaration from the governor or president would unlock state and federal funding for recovery. Crossley said the threshold for public assistance is about $4.2 million in uninsured losses, which, "without a major infrastructure loss is pretty hard to get to," he said.
As for individual assistance, the county must have at least 25 homes in the area that meet the Federal Emergency Management Agency's standards for a structure with "major damage."
Crossley said he expects to submit a damage assessment to the state sometime this week.
Homeowners who reported a sewer backup and have not yet heard from MSD are encouraged to call 513-352-4900.
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