City of Goshen to host flood awareness open-house

GOSHEN, Ind. -- An open-house public flood awareness meeting will be hosted by the city of Goshen on Thursday from 4:30 p.m. to 6:30 p.m. at Shanklin Park.

The open house is being held at the Shrock Pavilion and will allow city residents to talk with local representatives about the Lower Elkhart River Project and flooding throughout the area.

Goshen, a city which underwent historic flooding in 2018, has been experiencing minor floods over the past several weeks due to changing winter-weather, according to the city.

Areas such as Rogers, Abshire, Shanklin and Mullet Parks have all seen floodwater spilling into the lowest portions of Goshen's floodplains since late February.

According to the city, natural floodplains have been performing well, and are working as natural river and streambed overflows.

City officials say that the Indiana Climate Change Impact Assessment, put together by Purdue University, projects that the next few decades will see an increased rate of precipitation in northern Indiana.

According to this assessment, this dramatic increase in precipitation will happen in the late-winter and early-spring months, which indicates that more flooding events could occur in coming years.

Thursday's meeting has been set up with the intention of sharing with the public what steps Goshen has taken to adapt to future flooding issues, revisit the city's Flood Resilience plan, and more.