The Northwest Herald reported March 21 that the Illinois State Water Survey will be conducting a study of key bodies of water along Nippersink Creek—it is hoped that the study would help identify areas at high risk of flooding, helping redraw a new flood inundation map for the region and potentially lower insurance premiums for some property owners.
“Long term the study is going to help communities identify how flood risks have changed and how they can mitigate those risks,” said water resources engineer Greg Byard.
The study is a cooperative effort between the Illinois Department of Natural Resources Office of Water Resources and the Federal Emergency Management Agency. Two FEMA meetings in November 2012 and October 2014 with local official and emergency managers spurred the creation of the study.
During the study, the agency’s crews will be collecting data along and in the stream as weather permits. With the data collected, the agency will then develop computer models simulating flooding patterns. In turn, the data from these simulations would be passed to communities to help inform the public of the possible dangers of flooding.
McHenry County Emergency Management Agency Director David Christensen remarked that Nippersink Creek has a history of being unstable.
“It goes from a babbling brook to a raging torrent pretty quickly and then it's back again,” Christensen added.
