With the lingering snow and then the overnight rain, the ground has become super saturated with many standing pools of water throughout the City. The gage height at Beehunter Ditch hit 7.42 feet earlier this morning too. The ditch, which runs along 12th Street, ultimately drains water from the City of Linton into the Goosepond area. It has now returned to a depth of about six feet, which is still well above “normal’ but within its usual borders now.
Historically, between 4-5 feet is a more typical height reading of the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) measuring device, which is located just east of the intersection at Highway 54 East and 12th Street, has reported over the passed few years. The streamgage was installed by the USGS to monitor the waterflow just a few years ago.
In addition to monitoring the Beehunter Ditch, the USGS also has monitoring devices in two other locations in Greene County. The other two sites are located in Doans and Newberry, measuring the Doans Creek and White River, respectively.
The USGS is the science agency for the Department of the Interior, and it describes itself as “the Nation’s largest water, earth, and biological science and civilian mapping agency.” The USGS’s mission is to collect, monitor, and analyze natural resource conditions, issues, and problems, it states on its website.
The National Weather Service has issued a flood warning for the White River at Elliston from Monday to Saturday morning, as water continues to drain into the river from northern locations. Flood stage is 18.0 feet, and the forecast is for minor flooding from tomorrow morning to 21.3 feet Wednesday morning. This crest compares to a previous crest of 21.2 feet on April 22nd, 2015.
At Newberry, the National Weather Service is forecasting minor flooding, too, from later tonight to late Friday night. The river is expected to rise above flood stage late tonight to a crest of 16.0 feet Tuesday evening. It is expected to fall below flood stage early Friday afternoon.