A deluge of rainfall that came in torrents caused flash flood warnings in Bartholomew County and a growing list of road closings with homes and businesses surrounded by high water.
A Columbus independent living community moved about 60 residents out of the building Thursday afternoon because a nearby apartment building retention pond and its overflow were full, with rivulets of water breaking through the soil.
Officials at GreenTree at Westwood Senior Living, 4895 Pine Ridge Drive, on Columbus’ west side, were working with family members Thursday afternoon to have residents relocated as a precautionary move, said Vicky Colson, the facility’s executive director.
Officials at neighboring Westwood Pine Apartments, to the east of Greentree, were attempting to find someone to pump out the retention pond, which was full, with water also filling a 12-foot high overflow ditch where the soil appeared to be giving way, Columbus firefighters said.
The Columbus Fire Department told facility officials that if the overflow would break through the dirt, it could flood the facility, Colson said.
Columbus Fire Department spokesman Capt. Mike Wilson said firefighters found water close to Greentree as of about 5 p.m. Thursday. Firefighters began cleaning out drains to get some of the water away from the building.
If the overflow ditch did breach, the water would head toward the building, but it would also flow out into the parking lot and into the facility’s storm sewers, Wilson said, as the parking area is lower than Greentree’s building.
Columbus Department of Public Works workers went to the GreenTree at 6 p.m. Thursday with a pump to try to drain some of the water in order to determine if blocked drains were causing the problems. City employees said it might take several hours to determine if the drains were the issue, or if the city needed to attempt begin draining the retention pond as a safety precaution.
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For more on this story, see Friday’s Republic.
