At the last Uplands Residential Association meeting, Kathleen Woith from Lakeview and Pat Barton made a sales pitch to encourage residents to vote for the upcoming sales tax referendum to support the proposed downtown museum. (In case you’re wondering, two of the ten people in attendance were outspoken supporters, and I was of course an outspoken opponent; the rest were either on the fence or didn’t tip their hand.)

But during the presentation, the question came up about flooding. Woith explained that the block as well as Water Street were both going to be raised above the flood plain. She used the railroad tracks downtown as a guide. She said we would notice that, even when it floods downtown, the tracks don’t get submerged because they were raised above the flood plain. The museum would be raised to the level of the railroad tracks, and thus would be protected from flooding.

So I went down to take a look:

If you’re looking for the tracks, you won’t see them in this picture because they’re underwater. Fortunately, Woith also said the museum will have flood insurance.