KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- City council members who represent the south Kansas City areas hit hardest by recent floods were set to meet Tuesday with the city manager to discuss long-term flood management plans for Indian Creek.
Indian Creek reached an-all time high during an August 22 storm that brought some parts of the metro more than seven inches of rain. Just a month prior, in late July, the creek shattered its original record high by more than two inches.
The flooding forced the city to temporarily close the George Satterlee Bridge, which takes Wornall Road over the creek just north of 103rd Street. Water ran over the bridge and carried cars off the roadway.
Floodwaters caused significant damage to businesses in the same area during both the July and August floods. The owners of Coach’s Bar & Grill announced they would not reopen their restaurant on 103rd after the repeated flood damage over the late summer.
Council members Kevin McManus and Scott Taylor said this week the city council will consider a resolution directing city manager Troy Schulte to work with regional partners to try to stop flooding along the Indian Creek and Blue River corridor.
"That's why we are here today, to say we want to take action. We want to develop a plan. We want to get things done," said Kevin McManus, Kansas City council member.
If the measure is passed by the full council, Schulte will have six months to work with the Army Corps of Engineers, authorities in Cass and Johnson counties and FEMA to try to find a solution.
The work could cost millions of dollars. They will try to access FEMA funds to demolish the strip mall at 103rd and Wornall, as well as two homes behind the QuikTrip. That is all in the flood plain, so FEMA could pay for as much as 60 percent of the cost.
"If it is in the flood plain, it is cheaper for FEMA to pay for demolishing those structures and working with the municipality to create park land," explained Scott Taylor, city council member. "So they pay a significant portion of that cost."
It is very early in the process, but the city or voter-approved "GO Bonds" could end up paying for the rest.
In April, Kansas City voters approved “GO Bonds” to pay for a variety of projects across the city. One of those bonds specifically targets flooding. After July’s heavy rains, a city flood control expert explained the type of work needed to improve storm drainage.
“We would need to widen the channel, lay the slopes back, construct channel walls through there so the carrying capacity of the channel walls would be increased,” said Tom Kimes, a storm water utility engineering manager for KC Water.
The amount of work would take years and cost millions of dollars to be put in place.
Business owners told 41 Action News the creek's history of flooding actually makes it cheaper to pay for repairs after a flood than to pay the inflated flood insurance premiums due to the risk in the area.
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