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Around-the-Clock Work to Keep Your Water Flowing
The Louisville Water Tower was on an island. That’s how Louisville Water Maintenance Mechanic John Booher described the historic flooding that overtook River Road and part of Zorn Avenue just one year ago. Booher and other team members pulled 24-hour shifts to help keep Louisville Pure Tap® flowing during one of the top 10 floods in our history.
“We have to go around the clock,” Booher explained. “We don’t sleep. It’s mostly power naps.”
Drone video taken after the relentless rain in April of 2025 shows the river meeting the interstate and creeping to the rooflines of businesses. The river crested at nearly 37 feet, making it the worst flooding to ravage the area in 28 years.
With the help of Louisville Fire & Rescue, Booher and other crews used a boat to get to the Louisville Water Tower and pumping stations.
“It’s amazing the current that goes down River Road as he’s driving the boat. The boat’s wanting to drift down the river with it,” he said. “You are part of the river and you’re on an island up there.”
A 19-year Louisville Water employee, Booher said he had never seen flooding this extreme while on the job. He and the rest of the team put in long hours to keep the pumping stations running and operations moving.
“We check the pumps; we check oil levels. We have pumps down there that are meant to be submerged underwater,” Booher said.
At the same time, Louisville Water’s water quality team adjusted treatment strategies to ensure drinking water remained safe, clean, and high-quality.
“High water and high turbidity challenged both pump operation and water treatment, but Production Operation and Maintenance ensured Louisville Water maintained high quality throughout the event,” explained Director of Production Operations Scott Smith.
Floodwaters Forced Closures Along River Road
Homes, businesses, and roads remained under water for days. Mallory Burckle, director of marketing at Different Strokes Golf Center on River Road, said the business shut down for nearly three weeks. During the worst of the flooding, their employees could not even get to the property.
“It was pretty devastating,” Burckle recalled. “March and April are two of our biggest months of the year. Being shut down in the middle of April… it’s hard for a small business.”
Once the flood waters receded, the real work began. Burckle and her team cleaned up the property and tracked down equipment that floated away.
“We found stuff from the range a mile and a half down the road at the Shell Station,” Burckle said.
Looking back a year later, Burckle said she is thankful for the community support that helped the business get back on its feet.
“Our community really rallied around us. As soon as we were open, people rushed back to come enjoy the range and help us get back to normal,” she said.
Prepared for the Weather, Committed to the People We Serve
Throughout its 165-year legacy, Louisville Water has persevered through challenges, and our commitment to deliver high-quality drinking water never wavered. Amid the historic flooding in 2025, we applied the same focus we do every day to ensure nearly a million people have the tap water they rely on daily.
“It was historic, but we would do the same thing if it was barely flooded or really flooded. We have to go through the same procedures. We train for them (flooding events) annually,” Booher said.
Now, one year later, with the Ohio River back in its banks, one thing remains clear: at Louisville Water, reliability and quality are not situational—they are our standards.
