Goshen leans on flood recovery protocol during threats of heavy rainfall

GOSHEN, Ind - The need for climate resilience is growing across the nation and here at home, with historic flooding becoming a more of a common theme, the latest happening in the northeast.

Here in Michiana, we're taking a look at some protocols in place to deal with flooding, especially in Goshen, where they're no stranger to seeing flooding after heavy rains.

“It's just, when it actually happens, and how quickly it happens, is when we start to ramp things up,” said Jennifer Tobey with Elkhart Emergency Management.

In February 2018, Goshen experienced one of the worst floods in the city’s history.

Thankfully, officials now have protocols in place to deal with monitoring the height of the Elkhart River.

“We have USGS mapping that we can use to show based on how much rainfall the areas that, that will impact, plus we have the National Weather Service, has some modeling of the river because of some gauges we have in place that will also tell us how quickly the river is rising and what areas are potentially going to flood,” said Tobey.

Just last year, the city of Goshen released their Flood Resilience Plan in response to the February 2018 flood.

The city also has protocols like free sandbag stations, and officials study past flood events and maps to see what areas need improvement in terms of flood recovery.

Chief Dan Sink of the Goshen Fire Department elaborated on some of the equipment they use in flood search and rescue.

“We have boats, we have surface water rescue equipment that we can deploy and that’s what we did in 2018 and start rescuing people and bringing people to safety,” he said.

One resident of Goshen, Chase Brandenburg, feels that even when it does flood, that still doesn't stop people from having some fun.

“We’ve had people canoeing out over the top of, the top of this pavilion out here, the water spread, it flooded out the Low Bob’s and the laundromat over there, years prior it's also made its way over towards Kroger. I don’t know what causes the flood out here, but it ends up getting really high and people like to have fun out here,” he said.

Click here or read the document below to learn more about the city’s Flood Resilience Plan.