Frankfort Avenue reopens at River Road due to flash flooding

• Heavy rains are expected to flood intersections in Louisville.
• Police are urging motorists to not drive through standing water.
• The intersection where a cab driver drowned in his taxi earlier this month has been closed.
• Frankfort Avenue at River Road has been shut down.

Louisville agencies were clearing storm drains, blocking streets and warning drivers to stay away from flooded intersections as the city was hit Monday by another deluge.

That included closing the underpass at 13th and 15th streets along Oak Street where a taxi driver drowned in his cab during flash floods earlier this month.

Forecasts through Wednesday put Louisville under a flash flood watch due to heavy amounts of rain that started this weekend. This September is expected to be one of the soggiest months on record, according to meteorologists.

Rain and flooding in Louisville:What you need to know

The Louisville police department has been posting advisory warnings for motorists on its Twitter account pleading with them to avoid flooded intersections.

"Water and your car don’t mix," LMPD said on Monday. "Turn around."

"It's not worth it," LMPD said in another tweet. "Find another way."

Mayor Greg Fischer's office did not immediately respond to a request for comment Monday about the city's plans. The mayor's office did share out a tweet by the National Weather Service about the rainfall totals moving through the area.

Fischer also sent out a message via social media thanking the Louisville fire departments and Jefferson County special operations teams for "working the floods in North Carolina caused by Hurricane Florence."

Metro Public Works reported Monday that it has crews patrolling the roads to clear out any clogged catch basins to help reduce flooding. The city's parks department announced it has canceled all league softball games due to the rain.

Metropolitan Sewer District spokeswoman Sheryl Lauder told the Courier Journal that Frankfort Avenue was closed early Monday afternoon due to flooding with about a foot of water between Story Avenue and River Road.

The road opened several hours later around 5 p.m., according to MetroSafe.

Obviously:Study confirms what we all knew: Kentuckians can't drive in the rain

Jody Duncan, a spokeswoman for MetroSafe, said barricades have also been put up near Eastern Parkway and Norris Place.

Other closures she listed as of 4 p.m. included Six Mile Lane at Breckenridge Lane; 12501 Lower River Road; and 212 Southpark Road.

The city's response is being given extra scrutiny after 40-year-old Abdinasir Siyat drowned in the back seat of his taxi after his cab became submerged during flash flooding.

Siyat called 911 three times before he drowned at an underpass at 15th and Oak streets. Some critics on the Metro Council said Fischer's office could have done more, such as putting out barricades manned by police officers, to prevent the cab driver’s death.

Doug Hamilton, who is Fischer’s chief of public service, said in the aftermath of Siyat’s death that the taxi driver gave dispatchers the wrong location when he first called.

Siyat said he was at Dixie Highway and Oak Street, according to officials, but his cab was actually on Oak three blocks east between 13th and 15th streets at a railroad underpass. There were no barricades set up for motorists heading into that underpass, according to city officials.

Lauder, the MSD spokeswoman, said Monday that barricades were placed at 13th and 15th streets along Oak Street. The city is sending police officers to that intersection in order to ensure residents don’t move the barricades to get through, according to officials.

MSD is also delaying repair work for a sewer pipe that runs under Muhammad Ali Boulevard between Fifth and Sixth streets due to heavy rains, Lauder said. Work to repair the pipe is being delayed until after morning rush hour on Wednesday, she said.

Louisville weather:City is under a flash flood watch this week because of heavy rain

See also:After Bourbon & Beyond canceled, crews turn to saving Louder Than Life

This month has already been one of the soggiest Louisville has seen, placing in the top five of wettest Septembers on record, according to the National Weather Service. This past August was also named the fifth wettest August on record. 

"Here in Louisville, we are looking at two to four inches of rainfall," said Mark Jarvis, a National Weather Service meteorologist. "We got hit with the remnants of Florence earlier this month ... and now we have wet soil conditions. So this extra rainfall won't be able to be absorbed." 

Brian Bingham, MSD's chief of operations, also noted how Louisville is experiencing one of its rainiest years in history. He used Monday's board meeting to blame the recent flood problems on the weather rather than the sewer district's handling of the rainfall.

“This has just not been a very good weather year for us," Bingham said. "But, with the exception of the tragic deaths, I think we’ve done — there’s been a remarkable job done in the system and even in those instances, everything that was done was the way it should have been done."

Bingham said MSD staff are reviewing policies and procedures and would report their findings to the eight-member board, which is appointed by Fischer, over the next two months.

The rainfall also forced the cancellation of the last day of Louisville’s Bourbon & Beyond Festival on Sunday because of muddy conditions and rain. The festival's Facebook page said the cumulative effect led the city to declare Champions Park, where the concerts were held, to be unsafe.

Crews are now working to try to prepare Champions Park for this coming weekend's Louder Than Life music festival.

More:Louisville police: It's too unsafe to stop drivers who run red lights

Other news:Kentucky is getting new driver's licenses. Here's what they look like.

Reporter Alfred Miller contributed to this story. Reporter Phillip M. Bailey can be reached at 502-582-4475 or pbailey@courierjournal.com. Support strong local journalism by subscribing today: courier-journal.com/philb.