A flood subcommittee has been meeting for the past four months looking at options to present to city and county officials to mitigate future flooding. Emergency Management Director Don Thomson said the committee has been looking at a variety of options with the end goal of slowing down potential flood waters to reduce the impact on the city of Madison and the surrounding area.
"We don't want to stop it, just slow it down," Thomson said.
The group is a subcommittee of the Local Emergency Planning Committee. Its next meeting is Friday at 7 a.m. at the Madison Fire Hall.
Thomson said the subcommittee started with more than 50 suggested activities that could be done to alleviate flooding in Lake County and the group has pared that down to a shorter list of possible activity. Of those actions, some include raising existing roads to create natural retention areas.
Thomson said the committee should make its recommendations to city leaders in January.
The subcommittee has been meeting since September. In addition to reviewing options, the group has also looked at funding opportunities.
Thomson said completion of the projects not only means grant funding but also cooperation between city, county and township officials to complete the projects.
In addition to projects, Thomson said awareness is also a key. Residents should consider weather radio purchases to increase awareness of severe weather hitting the area. Other options include weather related apps for smart phones that provide severe weather alerts.
Thomson said weather radios can be programmed specifically to broadcast weather-related alerts in a person's county of residence.
The website Safe Travel USA also has a new function called Clear Path 511. Thomson said this function allows a person to receive a text or e-mail alert for various road conditions.
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