City of Bowling Green to help mitigate floods with home purchases

BOWLING GREEN, Ky. – The City of Bowling Green is taking the next step to help mitigate flooding in areas that suffered in February and April.

This week, the city commission approved the purchase of a property on Cave Mill Road that will help the public works department improve drainage during intense rain events. This house, along with two other Cave Mill properties purchased by the city, sit in low areas that could be used as basins to hold the water.

Andy Souza, public works director, Bowling Green, says, “Obviously, we can’t buy everyone’s house that was flooded, but what we could do is look for some of those common issues, houses that have repeatedly flooded over and over again, and those that if we were to do something with those houses, could that help save other houses. We are never going to stop all flooding in Bowling Green. That’s just the nature of the beast. But to the extent we can mitigate, we’re absolutely going to try.”

A total of four homes were purchased for about $1, 300,000, and the Bowling Green Fire Department will get to use the houses for training before they are demolished.

All the property was acquired with the consent of the owners. Public works also has some improvements to help prevent flooding in the works for Shannon Way, Red Clover and Turkey Run that won’t require the purchase of homes.