Flood of July 1-2, 1987, in north-central Ohio

Abstract

During the night of July 1 and early morning of July 2, 1987, an intense summer storm produced flooding on headwater streams of the Scioto, Sandusky, and Mohican Rivers in north-central Ohio. The heaviest flooding and resulting flood damage occurred in a five-county area in the north-central part of the state. From 3 to nearly 6 inches of rain fell in less than 10 hours on rainsaturated soil, and produced flooding that resulted in more than $20 million in damages. Estimated peak discharges for several of the small streams affected ranged from 1 to 2 1/2 times the magnitude of the 50-year flood of these sites. INTRODUCTION During the night of July 1 and early morning of July 2,1987, an intense summer storm produced flooding on headwater streams of the Scioto, Sandusky and Mohican Rivers in north-central Ohio. This region (fig. 1) is designated by the National Weather Service (NWS) as the Central Highlands. Flood damage was especially heavy in Shelby, Bellville, and Mansfield in Richland County; Bucyrus and Galion in Crawford County; Marion in Marion County; and Mt. Gilead in Morrow County. Immediately following the storm, Governor Celeste declared a state of emergency in these counties and in Delaware County. He then asked the President to declare these counties a disaster area so that Federal funds would be available for their rehabilitation. Following a review by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), four of the counties were declared eligible; only Delaware County was excluded. The purpose of this report is to present a compilation of hydrologic data obtained by NWS, the Ohio Department of Natural Resources (ODNR), FEMA, and the U.S. Geological Survey documenting the magnitude of the major floods resulting from the storm of July 1-2, 1987. This report is the compilation of information from many local, state and federal agencies. The information on rainfall preceding and during the flood event was largely from an unpublished report (National Weather Service, 1987) by the NWS Forecast