The Duck Creek floodgate did fail to close during a July 17 storm that overwhelmed Duck Creek and caused it to flood the community nearby, City Manager Sheryl Long said Thursday.Long said officials have identified the floodgate did not closed because of a mechanical malfunction; the gate is currently unable to close automatically as the creek rises, and can only be closed manually.Long said chains were added to the system's arms, because they'd begun improperly lowering and blocking traffic; those chains were added in October to keep the arms up, and had no impact on the larger mechanical issue impacting the gate.Greater Cincinnati Water Works Deputy Director Jason Fleming said the floodgate, which was built by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in 2008 and turned over to the city to maintain in 2012, has been regularly inspected, but issues with it are known.Watch the full press conference to hear everything leaders had to say: Duck Creek flood gate failed, but city still investigating other flooding issuesFleming said in 2020, a study of the floodgate led to the recommendation the bridge be fully replaced something the city was not able to do. According to Fleming, replacing all the issues revealed in that study would require re-arranging property, roads, railroads and other crucial infrastructure in that area, which was something the city determined was not financially feasible.Long said the floodgate only impacted the area specifically around Duck Creek and the Madison Road bridge; she estimated it was around 40 homes and businesses, and the city has already begun reaching out to them to assess their damage. Flooding in the immediate vicinity of the Duck Creek floodgate may have been less severe if the floodgate had not failed, Long said, but the sheer amount of rain that fell within an hour on July 17 still would have caused issues.On Tuesday, as even more heavy rain was forecast to dump on the region, Fleming said the decision was made to preemptively, manually close the Duck Creek floodgate as a precaution; it was re-opened after storms moved out of the area. That wasn't possible once Friday's storms had already started, Fleming said, because the flooding rose so quickly in such a short span of time.Whether the sewer system failed in any way remains something city and MSD officials are investigating, said Diana Christy, director of MSD.MSD has received over 1,600 reports since Friday, Christy said, and MSD has worked through over 900 of them.Of those, over 500 have qualified for MSD's sewer backup program over 50%, Christy said.Still, she said the amount of rainfall on both July 17 and July 21 overwhelmed the sewer systems but the solution cannot be simply expanding the current sewer capacity. She said officials have to think about whether areas the sewers release to rivers, creeks and streams in the region can handle an expanded outpouring of rainwater after an event like the two storms last week.Watch below to see the impacts of the flooding near the Duck Creek gate: Questions about floodgate resurface after flash flooding devastates Oakley businesses"An area like Hyde Park, there is no simple solution," Christy said. "There isn't a currently designed plan. It will take coordination among various agencies long term planning to really determine if there are things you could do to prevent what is happening in these more frequently occurring massive storm events that we've had. So, we've been looking at it, we're committed to it, but it is really going to take a coordinated and long term effort and it is very expensive, so we also have to consider what our community can afford."Several Cincinnati neighborhoods grappled with flash flooding that damaged homes and businesses during storms on both July 17 and July 21.Neighborhoods in Hyde Park, Colerain Township, Oakley, Mount Lookout and more have been cleaning up water damage for around a week since the two rounds of heavy rainfall caused floodwaters to cover roadways and rush inside buildings.Many in the city have speculated as to why flooding hit the neighborhoods so badly this year. Residents along Observatory Avenue in Hyde Park told us they believe the failure of a nearby sewer main could be to blame.Neighbors said the street flooded Friday and Tuesday during storms. They said the manhole cover of a sewer main on the street shot off during the storm, causing water to gush onto the road and into their homes.Others have eyed a Duck Creek floodgate that appeared to not operate properly during the July 17 round of storms; Residents and business owners who watched floodwaters overtop the Duck Creek channel told us the Duck Creek floodgate never closed.Following that storm, city leaders told us they are reviewing the system again. Though officials said there has been no confirmed failure, they are investigating whether the system operated as designed.Greater Cincinnati Water Works said the city's Stormwater Management Utility is working with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to review video footage and sensor data to determine whether the floodgate operated properly.A spokesperson for MSD said they've received nearly 1,500 reports of suspected sewer backups since Friday.They said the July 17 rainfall was so intense that it exceeded the design capacity of the public sewer system. They added that no modern sewer system is designed to handle a storm of that magnitude.Anyone with reports of sewer backups can report those to MSD 24/7 by calling 513-352-4900 or reporting problems online. ...read more read less