Metropolis has seen many flood events over the years and takes steps to keep everyone safe.
City workers check the water level and roads daily for increasing levels
When you live close to a river, you know at some point the river will get up to your backyard.
The city of Metropolis knows this all too well.
“We’ve had two major ice storms that were a hundred-year event, we’ve had two major floods that were hundred-year events, we’ve had tornadoes, wind shear storms.”
Mayor Billy McDaniel says with every one of these events, the city sees a learning lesson.
“Every time you have one of these events and this one is not as bad as 2011, we’re already making notes, believe me it may be next year it may be 5 years but there will be another event on that river.”
The river will crest on the first Saturday in March, and luckily it’s going to be 2 feet lower than the flood of 2011.
McDaniel says even though the damage is less, the city will have to pay for the cleanup and repairs out of its own budget.
This may mean they'll to have to shuffle some money around - because the city’s biggest employer, Harrah's, is closed because of the flood.
“They’ll be closed probably for 3 weeks at least, so that’s income there that we’re not going to have.”
The river is estimated to start receding after the first week of March.
