Watershed structures and conservation practices help reduce flooding damages

Extreme rainfall events of May brought severe flooding and property damage to many residents in central and eastern Kansas. Floodwaters also caused traffic disruptions, including the closure of northbound lanes on the Kansas Turnpike. USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service employees have been surveying the damage from the record-setting rainfall events.

Despite the lowland flooding damage, NRCS engineers and conservationists determined if it hadn’t been for the flood control structures installed by watershed district sponsors, flooding damages could have been much worse. NRCS models estimate that the federally assisted watershed dams built in Kansas helped prevent over $7 million in flooding damages from the May 6-8 storms, and $18.3 million for the May 20-21 storms.