Cincinnati orders flash-flood review as council seeks stormwater action plan

Cincinnati orders flash-flood review as council seeks stormwater action planCincinnati City Council has adopted a motion requiring an after-action analysis of the 2026 flash floods, including an assessment of what worked, what failed and what the city should change. The review is expected to inform a further Metropolitan Sewer District presentation planned for October, although the city manager cautioned that the requested 30-day deadline may be difficult to meet.

Council unanimously adopted the motion for a comprehensive 2026 flash-flood after-action analysis.

The requested review is to assess successful and unsuccessful elements of the response and identify actions the city should start, stop and continue.

Councilmember Jeffreys specifically cited detention basins and green infrastructure among the measures to be evaluated.

The City Manager said staff are developing a site for the work and considering short- and long-term wins, but may request more time than the 30 days specified.

MSD is expected to return in October with a presentation on next steps.

Cincinnati City Council has directed the administration to produce a comprehensive after-action analysis of the 2026 flash floods, seeking a clearer plan for future extreme-rainfall events and placing potential stormwater infrastructure measures under review. The motion, submitted by Councilmembers Jeffreys and Albi and adopted unanimously on 16 September, calls for a report or presentation to council within 30 days evaluating what worked and did not work during the floods, and identifying what the city should start, stop and continue doing. Councilmember Jeffreys said residents wanted a plan following the July flooding, even if it would take years to implement. He said the analysis should examine “things like detention basins, their green infrastructure, et cetera.” He also said the Metropolitan Sewer District of Greater Cincinnati had appeared before council in August and was expected to return in October with a further presentation on what comes next. “We will be seeing these flash floods again,” Jeffreys said. “It happened this summer. It will happen again. And we just want to make sure that we have a clear plan going forward.” Councilmember Albi said climate change was already affecting Cincinnati and that the city needed both proactive and reactive measures in response to continuing extreme-weather patterns. The City Manager supported the need for the work but warned that the prescribed timetable could prove demanding. “Thirty days is maybe a little bit of aggressive a timeline,” she told council. Her team is working on creating a site for the effort and identifying both long-term and short-term wins, she said, but may approach council for additional time because of the scale of the work required. The adopted motion does not allocate funding or select projects. Instead, it establishes a formal review intended to set out the city’s response priorities after the floods and to support further discussion with MSD and residents.