HANCOCK COUNTY, OH (WTOL) - We are closing in on 10 years since the Blanchard River flooded and caused $100 million worth of damage in Findlay.
And over those 10 years, officials have been working to make scenes like these a thing of the past.
But folks in rural Hancock County are not happy with where flood waters may now start showing up with a new flood plan.
The agricultural community of Hancock County has been opposed to the Eagle Creek diversion channel since it was first proposed.
And now, they are opposing the revised plan, which does not use the diversion channel but instead recommends using large water basins further upstream.
Stantec, the engineering company now studying the Blanchard River flood mitigation, recommended the Eagle Creek diversion would have to be widened from earlier projections.
So the latest proposal to lower flood waters in downtown Findlay is to create basins on Eagle Creek and Potato Run.
This is a problem for members of the Hancock County Farm Bureau, as farmers' properties would then be flooded.
"So, it's not really solving the flooding problem, it's just moving the flood plain. And it's also about moving the liability of insurance to another group of people," said Kay Zeisloft, a member of the Hancock County Farm Bureau.
The Bureau does like the $20 million option to remove inlets and widen the flood plain bench in downtown Findlay.
But the rest of the flood plan is too much for their liking.
"It's double the cost and someone is going to have to pay for this," said Zeisloft. "We can't pay for it all by a sales tax."
The Farm Bureau will officially go over the updated flood plan at their next meeting later this month.
