army corps of engineers

Horn Lake officials met this week with representatives from the Army Corps of Engineers to discuss a plan on how to alleviate flooding around Horn Lake Creek.

Horn Lake Creek drains 27,000 acres of DeSoto County, but only 8,000 acres are in Horn Lake. Most of the storm runoff water comes from east of the expressway and results in major flooding of parts of Goodman Road and Highway 51 – or Bullfrog Corner.

The Corps of Engineers have been working with DeSoto County on a flood study and recently shared its findings with Horn Lake this week. They outlined one possible solution to build a three foot levee and a five foot flood wall along Highway 51 south of Goodman Road to help keep floodwater from damaging businesses. Both the levee and flood wall would keep the area dry during a 2-year flood event as well as a 100-year flood event.

The plan would also restore the creek’s ecosystem by cleaning up downed trees and debris and restoring the banks which have been eroded and damaged over the years.

Mayor Allen Latimer said it was a good meeting and that it would be nice to not see Bullfrog Corner underwater every time it rains.

Businesses in Bullfrog Corner were inundated with floodwater in 2014 after parts of Southaven and Horn Lake received about seven inches of rain over a 12 hour period, and event which the Corps described as a 25-year event.

“I was really happy with what I heard,” Latimer said. “They said this is where we are now in the process but that we can change it and make some modification based on some of the feedback. They were here to listen to what we think because we have to live with it.”

District 4 Supervisor Lee Caldwell, who attended the meeting along with District 3 Supervisor Ray Denison as representatives of the county, said while there are still some more questions to be answered, it looks like there can be a resolution that works for everyone. 

“They are going to get us some additional information and there will be some revisions to what they have come up with,” Caldwell said. “But I think they are going to come up with an even better plan from the first one they gave us.”

The proposed cost of the levee and floodwall is about $9.5 million which will require the Army Corps of Engineers to partner with other entities to help pay for the potential fix to the problem. 

Caldwell said they expect to hear back from Corps officials in the next few weeks with more revisions. The plan will still need to go through several more public hearings before obtaining final approval.

Latimer said while the plan would definitely help the city, he wants to make sure the solution doesn’t fix one problem and cause other businesses to flood.

“It’s not just a map to us,” Latimer said. “We have seen the water. But I do think think this will help a great deal.”