Mayor says thanks for flooding efforts

To the editor:

Once again, the entire community came together in a call for action during the April 26 flood event in Portland.

Once Jay County Emergency Management Director Jessica Ooten, my street superintendent tom Leonhard and I made the decision it was time to take action at 3 a.m. Friday, we asked for volunteers to come forward to help sandbag, and they did.

Throughout the entire day, residents, business people, industry people and city and county employees came forward and either helped sandbag or deliver sandbags as far away as New Corydon.

As a result of pre-planning, collaborative and cooperative efforts, we can report that as far as we know, we escaped with only minor damages in isolated incidents.

However, I do want to caution everyone that as you can see from all over the entire USA, it can happen time and time again. There have been extreme weather conditions all over the country, and to say that we have overcome Mother Nature is fooling ourselves. All we can do is continue to implement flood control measures that will reduce the impact that Mother Nature could have on our community.

Thank you very much, each and every one of you who came forward and volunteered to help through this very frustrating day.

Sincerely,

Mayor Randy D. Geesaman

City of Portland