Month: December 2015

Ward Archer

Mud Island is submerged under the Mississippi River during the flood of 2011.

Shelby County safety officials are preparing for potential flooding along the Mississippi River as waters here rise a foot and half each day, officials said.

Shelby County Office of Preparedness (SCOP) staffers checked water gauges Thursday and took pictures of areas likely to receive damage, according to a statement from the office.

The SCOP will keep Shelby County Mayor Mark Luttrell and city mayors apprised of the situation as it develops.

“Although we will likely face some challenges by the high water, Director [Dale] Lane and his staff at the Shelby County Office of Preparedness have reviewed their plans and are ready to coordinate the response by public works, law enforcement, fire, and emergency services bureaus across the county,” Luttrell said in a statement Thursday. 

The SCOP and the University of Memphis created a map that shows anticipated damage in ZIP codes throughout the county. To see if your area might be affected, check the maps at the SCOP website.

Shelby County Office of Preparedness

A map of the 38103 ZIP code shows where floodwaters may damage areas of Downtown Memphis.

So far no roads have been closed in the county. But on Monday, Second Street, between Whitney and Mud Island Drive, will be closed as will the access road to the Stiles Water Treatment Plant. Drivers should use Pear Avenue and Thomas Street as detour routes, according to Ken Johnson of the City of Memphis Traffic Engineering Department.

Should the SCOP activate the Emergency Operations Center, the National Weather Service, Tennessee Emergency Management Agency, MLGW, and other agencies will have representatives available to help those affected by floodwaters.

National Weather Service forecasters say the Mississippi River will crest at an estimated 42 feet by Saturday, Jan. 9. The crest was 48.3 feet when the flood of 2011 damaged neighborhoods in Memphis and Shelby County.

For more information about the flood response, go to www.staysafeshelby.us or call (901) 222-6700.

Apple Maps

Purple pin shows the location fo the new bridge.

Construction is complete on a new $5.5 million bridge that reconnects a major Memphis thoroughfare to Memphis International Airport.

City officials opened the new bridge over Nonconnah Creek at Airways Boulevard in a ceremony Wednesday that ended nearly two years’ worth of work and traffic delays around the busy area.

“This project represents the city’s continuing commitment to keeping the airport area vital and active,” Memphis Mayor A C Wharton said in a statement. “With this area being a major employment center and the front door to our city for visitors flying in from around the globe, we must continue to make improvements.”

The Federal Emergency Management Agency covered 75 percent of the cost of the bridge. The Tennessee Emergency Management Agency and the City of Memphis split the remainder of the cost.

U.S. Rep. Steve Cohen said the new bridge is an important “fixture in our Memphis economy.”

“The airport is the gateway to Memphis, and the Airways Boulevard Bridge is the pathway many travelers rely on to transport them safely to and from that gateway,” Cohen said in a statement.

The city is now working with the Tennessee Department of Tranpsortation to upgrade the interchange at Airways and I-240. Also, improvements are planned for the interchange at Plough Beoulveard and Winchester Road.

The Memphis and Shelby County Office of Sustainability (SCOS) was busy in 2015.

• It completed the massive MidSouth Regional Greenprint and Sustainability Plan in November and got the plan approved by 19 different city and county governments in Tennessee, Mississippi, and Arkansas.

The plan will put an emphasis on the area’s green spaces and connect it with a network of 500 miles of greenways. The SCOS completed the plan in November and hired a full time Greenprint coordinator, John Michels.

This year, SCOS and Michels will work to begin implementing the Greenprint plan and establish Greenprint as its own entity, outside SCOS.

• This year city leaders should hear whether or not we won funds through the federal National Disaster Resilience Competition.

SCOS entered the competition earlier this year wth a $116 million plan to make Memphis more resilient to Mother Nature. The federal government has about $1 billion to offer in competition grants. SCOS issued a grant request of about $71 million.

• More buildings will be added in 2016 to a SCOS program that puts inmates to work greening up the place.

SCOS got $250,000 grant from the Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation in 2015 to make Shelby County buildings more environmentally friendly.

In the program, inmates were trained to install systems that reduced the use of hot water, caught solar rays for electricity, and made doing laundry more sustainable. 

• In 2016, SCOS will install a 50 kilowatt solar array at the Lichterman Nature Center.

• The Benjamin L. Hooks Central Library will get a host of clean energy upgrades, thanks to SCOS.

• The office will begin a green house gas emissions inventory for the Memphis area.