8-15-2026 Rocky Ripple White River Flood Watch

Central Indiana experienced heavy rains during the week we house-sat in Indianapolis. The news was saying it was a 1,000-year flood event. We knew the banks of the White River were likely to be overtopped in a couple of areas, so on the first day we could we biked to the Broad Ripple and Rocky Ripple areas to check out the state of things. In our 17.4-mile bike ride we saw the flood gates closed, levee protection, sandbagging, and a huge neighborhood response during the forecasted crest.

The pool floats seemed ironic floating in the flood waters. Further illustration that this is supposed to be a driveway, not river access.

They closed the gate on the Canal so that it was isolated from the White River flood event.

These are part of the gate system that is a second line of defense if the levee along the White River in Rocky Ripple fails.

All of the white things in the image are sandbags - the levee was getting overtopped in areas and crews capped it with sandbags.

This was during the forecasted crest of the White River. The upper end of the projection was 1.5 feet higher, which would have been catastrophic.

The volunteer crews were going around with trucks and fortifying the low points in the levee.

These were the cars parked outside from all of the citizens who went to sandbag the levee in Rocky Ripple.

Thanks, in part, to the sandbagging efforts of the local residents, Rocky Ripple was spared. Ravenswood, another precarious neighborhood in the White River floodplain, was not so lucky. Many other parts of central Indiana were also heavily impacted by flooding.