Now to some weather news.

Another round of severe weather swept across the state today.

A strong line of storms rolled into Kentucky during the overnight hours and made county near Louisville.

Several large trees were toppled, blocking roads.

Flooding was also reported across the county.

It was a similar scene in nearby Nelson County, where some county roads were covered by water.

Several roads were also closed this morning in Lexington because of high water.

The fire department responded to multiple calls of cars stranded and even submerged.

It's because of weather events like today that a Hardin County city has been working to better protect itself from heavy rains.

The City of Radcliffe has reduced its flood plain by four feet by building what's called a green sink.

They took what was once a flat piece of land and turned it into a beautiful basin.

Our McKenzie Speake spoke with city officials to learn more about this method of flood mitigation.

The catalyst for the Higgins Basin project was actually in 1997.

After historic rainfall caused heavy flooding at the bottom of the Happy Valley watershed.

We had about ten inches of rain, over a couple of days, and this whole area was was underwater.

Dixie highway, was under water.

The homes that are surrounding the basin, which are adjacent to it, they were all completely underwater.

We have an area over here called Happy Valley.

Unfortunately, that wasn't so happy during those times because it was completely flooded.

The homes were underneath water.

After similar flooding in 2008, the city began a partnership with FEMA and the Kentucky Division of Emergency Management to build the quick and Basin.

The natural sinkhole in this area wasn't draining the flood water fast enough, so creating a basin made space for the water to collect somewhere that wasn't roadways or residential areas.

So a lot of times when you're dealing with basins, and storm water, you're talking about just slowing water down.

You're trying to detain it until the peak of the storm has passed and the downstream system can take additional flow.

This is just a giant bathtub.

So you've got a really large watershed, a thousand over 1000 acres, all draining to one sinkhole that basically operates like a 12 inch pipe.

The native plants in this basin had to be carefully chosen.

They had to withstand being underwater for days at a time, but also survive potential droughts.

Crawford says the habitat in the green sink has been thriving, and that the nearby streams have actually improved ecologically since the completion of the project.

Immediately after the construction of the project, while we were still kind of in our growing period on the restoration, we were starting to see tadpoles.

We were starting to see more birds.

We were starting to see the the wildlife interacting, you know, with what was built.

Part of the original design for the Basin Project incorporated paved trails around the edges.

Originally, the paths were intended for service crews and vehicles, but they've also become walking trails for the community.

If we look now, you know, you'll see people out here walking.

You'll see, you know, nature, you'll see people walking their dogs, you know?

And so it really has added a, a, a sense of safety to some of these homeowners that are around here.

Crawford says the community and environmental impacts were bonus benefits of the basin Project.

The main purpose of the basin was put to the test last year.

February 2025, and then again in April 2025.

We had, massive rain events where we actually had events that were larger than 100 year storm and we were able to to see first hand, you know, if our solutions.

Worked, they did exactly what they were supposed to do.

Did we have some overflow?

Absolutely.

But we didn't have anybody's house completely under water.

And that that showed that they did exactly what they were built for.

Dixie Highway did not go under water, and we didn't have any residential flooding in this area.

So, it was a great day when we were able to, you know, verify that, that all the hard work and money that was spent, you know, provided a meaningful impact and prevented 100 residents from having their basements flooded again and, and kept Dixie highway open for the traveling public.

For Kentucky edition, I'm Mackenzie Spink.

Thank you so much, Mackenzie.

With the surrounding land now safer from floodwaters, more businesses have been opening in the area.

That includes a Baptist Health emergency care center that's currently being built.