The clean up continues in Shelby County from weekend flooding.
The Big Blue River did not crest at a record height – the flood of 1913 hit 20.2 feet. The river crested at just short of 20 feet Sunday afternoon.
Shelbyville Mayor Scott Furgeson commended every city department for being involved all weekend.
“We are blessed,” said Furgeson Wednesday morning at City Hall. “We have a lot of good employees. They did great work. Everybody in the city was involved.”
Shelbyville’s Swift Water Rescue Team had 15 call outs and rescued 53 people and 32 pets over a three-day period.
“The Swift Water Rescue Team was called in to duty Friday and didn’t get off duty until after Sunday,” said Furgeson.
No fatalities occurred from the flooding, according to Furgeson and Jay Tennell, Deputy Chief of Fire Operations with the Shelbyville Fire Department.
The National Weather Service reported Sunday that Shelbyville had received nearly seven inches of rain over a 7-day stretch.
Prior to this weekend, the last time the Big Blue River reached a dangerous height was in 2005. Furgeson was the mayor then and cited that experience with helping with decision making this time around.
“We learned a lot in 2005,” explained Furgeson. “I was not scared it was going to come over the levee this time because once it gets to a certain point, it breaks north and goes over Boggstown Road and never gets any higher. I think it was a foot-and-a-half higher this time than in 2005.
“It had never been that high in a long time but having that knowledge, back in 2005 we were ready to start evacuating the western side of the city. Luckily, we didn’t have to do that.”
The Little Blue River did crest at over 13 feet – a new record.
“The only damages to houses we had in our community was over in that area,” said Furgeson. “I was over there Monday and it was like nothing happened, except the (damage to the) houses.”
As with the experience in 2005, Furgeson wanted to make sure lessons were learned from this flood. A meeting was held with emergency services department heads as well as the city engineer and plan director to discuss options.
“It made us realize we need to have a better plan to communicate with our citizens,” said Furgeson. “If the levee every breaches, what do we do?
“We hope it never happens but it is a possibility.”
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