Is Louisville prepared?

Is my hometown of Louisville prepared for another flood like the one in 1937? Luckilly, we do have a man-made and natural floodwalls. In 1937, just about the whole town flooded east of the Highlands--and that is hard to believe since now, the only places that flood are Prospect and River Road.

"There is no reason to believe that the 1937 flood won't ever be surpassed," said Len Maz, a hydrologist with the National Weather Service's Ohio River Forecast Center in Wilmington, Ohio. "It's going to happen. Climatologically, it is remote. But it is expected, and it is probable. We just don't know if it will happen in a couple hundred years or next year."

The city built floodwalls and gates after the '37 flood, and they have worked flawlessly, officials said. For those walls to be overrun now, the river would have to crest three feet above the 1937 level of 52 feet, city officials said.

Bill Byron, a hydraulic engineer for the Army Corps of Engineers, said a flood large enough to breach the levees would only be possible if a number of worst-case weather scenarios converged.

"Something as large as the '37 flood would be rare. Based on the data we have kept, something like that would only happen once in 500 years," he said.

"But the biggest floods that occur on the Ohio River take place when heavy rainfall saturates the ground. It happens when a front comes and stalls out over the Ohio River basin and just won't move," he said.

When the floodgates go up, the city, like New Orleans, has no way of naturally draining water from rising creeks, sewers and lakes inside the walls.

A series of 16 water pumps do that by moving water into the Ohio River. And basins around the city also handle runoff from rain.

After 1997, when flooding occurred inside the floodwall, the city built new basins, so far proving enough to handle storms.

But some of the pumps are more than 50 years old and need $50 million to $60 million in repairs, said Bud Schardein, executive director of the Metropolitan Sewer District. Large areas of the city would be threatened if one or more of them failed, he said.

Happy Birthday to Jerry Lee Lewis (70) and a little green friend we all like: Kermit the Frog (50)

Michigan wants a fair Democratic primary calendar.

Let's hope it doesn't get nasty in Florida State Senate District 30. From what I read, the current state Senator is running for Congress.

Bon Jovi will open Britain's brand new Wembley Stadium.

That's it for now.