Flooding by watershed: the Lexington streets on the city's own flood list
Lexington keeps a public list of places where home flooding or serious street flooding is known or suspected, and it tags every entry with the watershed it drains to. Read together with the city's watershed pages, it shows street by street where the city has looked into flooding.
Referral service, not a contractor. Your request goes to an independent Lexington-area restoration company. We do not do the drying or repairs.
Which creek takes your rain
The Division of Water Quality divides Fayette County into seven urban and two rural watersheds. Here is what its watershed pages say about where each one is and where it goes.
Central and northwest Fayette
Leaves the county into South Elkhorn Creek. Wolf Run feeds it, along with Bracktown Branch and the Bethel Road Tributary. The city counts three karst basins in it.
Southwest, inside New Circle
10 square miles, more than 13 miles of streams, mostly homes and apartments. Almost half of it is roofs, streets and parking lots.
Central Fayette, flowing north
45.4 square miles, crossing into Scott County to meet North Elkhorn Creek. Sinkholes, springs and caves; mostly residential.
South-central Fayette
22 square miles, mostly urban in Fayette. Includes Tates Creek, Mill Creek and Reservoirs 1, 2 and 3. Flows about ten miles to Hickman Creek in Jessamine County.
Southeast edge
20 square miles straddling the edge of the urban service area. Jacobson Reservoir, Lexington Reservoir No. 4, is formed from 11,000 feet of the creek.
Southwest Fayette
About 70 percent residential. Its named tributaries in the county are Cave Creek, Manchester Branch, Shannon Run and Steele's Run.
Northeast Fayette
95 square miles reaching into southern Scott County; mostly rural in Fayette, with urban land in its southeast headwaters. David Fork, Avon Fork, Bryan Station Creek and Goose Creek feed it.
How high the creeks run
The Weather Service lists gauges on Elkhorn, North Elkhorn, Cane Run, West Hickman and East Hickman creeks. Their crest records are on the gauge page.
Watershed facts from the City of Lexington's individual watershed pages, read November 9, 2026. The two-letter codes are the ones the city's stormwater project list uses.
"Home flooding or serious street flooding known or suspected"
That is the heading on the Stormwater Priority Projects Master List, updated January 2026 and linked from the city's stormwater page. Its entries are numbered up to 100, with extra entries slotted in between, ranked by an efficiency value and showing each place's watershed, council district, severity score, cost estimate and a comment on what happened there. The list's total cost estimate is $115,243,000.
Many entries are closed. Some were fixed with new storm sewers or detention basins. A striking number were closed by buying and demolishing houses that kept flooding. Others were recommended for removal after an investigation found no home flooding. The comments are short, but they say plainly what the city found.
The same stormwater page explains why paved neighborhoods flood. Rain that cannot soak in runs downhill and speeds up, and without detention basins to hold it, the flow reaches the creeks faster than it did before development and floods low-lying areas.
What the list says happened, street by street
A selection from the January 2026 list. Comments are condensed from the city's own wording.
PlacesViley; Skycrest; Lafayette / Southbend; Elizabeth Street and Forest Park; Tucson Drive; Picadome, Barkley / Southgate and Longview Drive.
ActionViley: Sugar Mill detention, four culverts and 36 acquisitions, at a cost the list says exceeds $7 Million with FEMA funds. Skycrest: 22 demolitions. Lafayette / Southbend: a FEMA grant to remove 9 homes that flood. Elizabeth / Forest Park finished in summer 2020. Picadome, Barkley / Southgate and Longview are folded into the Wolf Run / Southland Area Project.
PlacesParkside at Shandon; Joyland; Northwood Drive; Rogers Road; Morgan Avenue; Elkhorn Park.
ActionEleven houses on Shandon, Parkside and Cabot bought with a FEMA grant. Joyland: phase 1 complete, phase 2 awarded at $1,083,653.00. Northwood Drive: five homes bought and demolished. Rogers Road: a new storm sewer system. Morgan Avenue: five houses bought.
PlacesFt. Sumter Drive, Gayle and Clarksdale; Floyd Drive at New Circle; Dartmoor Court; Anniston Drive and Wickland Drive.
ActionTen houses on Ft. Sumter, Gayle and Clarksdale bought and demolished with a FEMA grant, and three more properties acquired with local funds. Six houses demolished on Dartmoor Court under the Floyd Drive project.
PlacesPeachtree Road and Woodhill Park; Greentree Road; Idle Hour and Idle Hour Drive; Gainesway; Glendover West; Zandale; Loch Lomond Drive.
ActionPeachtree and Woodhill Park: over 3,000 feet of new storm sewer. Greentree Road: six houses that flood demolished. Glendover West: stormwater features built in the Arboretum. Idle Hour Drive: an engineering study (PER) in progress in winter and spring 2026. Gainesway: a PER slated for 2026.
PlacesMentelle Park; Cooper Drive; Ashland; National Avenue; Mt. Vernon / Hollywood; Ashland Park; Aylesford Park; North Broadway; East High Street.
ActionCooper Drive: awarded at $2,101,875.00, substantially complete in winter 2025, final restoration spring and summer 2026. Mentelle Park: final design spring 2026 for phase 1, the north portion. Ashland, National Avenue and Mt. Vernon / Hollywood remain on the list with estimates of $19,366,000, $15,271,000 and $10,691,000. Two East High Street projects were completed together to reduce serious street flooding.
PlacesSouth Elkhorn between Higbee Mill and Halifax; Cindy Blair Way; the Jessie Clark sinkhole; Lyon Drive; Stonewall Community.
ActionThe Halifax culvert was rebuilt to prevent home flooding. Cindy Blair Way: homes purchased and floodproofed. Jessie Clark sinkhole: study complete and new pipe installed on Saxon Drive.
PlacesYellowstone; Smoky Mountain.
ActionBoth sit near the top of the list and both are marked completed: Yellowstone to stop street flooding and dangerous ice, Smoky Mountain to prevent street and home flooding.
Source: City of Lexington, Stormwater Priority Projects Master List, January 2026 update, read November 9, 2026. The list's comments are the city's; we have not checked conditions on any street.
What the list suggests about Lexington flooding
- Karst shows up by name. The Jessie Clark sinkhole, McCubbing Drive (completed "by improving sinkhole drainage"), and a Beaumont Park Sinkhole entry later recommended for removal when no home or street flooding was found. The local guide explains why sinkholes flood houses here.
- The biggest price tags are in Town Branch. The three largest estimates on the list are in Town Branch, in the Ashland, National Avenue and Mt. Vernon / Hollywood areas.
- Wolf Run and Cane Run carry many of the buyouts. Viley, Skycrest, Lafayette / Southbend, Parkside at Shandon and Northwood all ended with houses bought out of the flood path.
- Not every complaint is a city pipe. Several entries were recommended for removal because an investigation found no home flooding or the problem was commercial, and a few note that the fix lies in state right of way.
Reporting it, and the line between city and private
After the June 22, 2026 flash flood, the City asked residents to report flooding and damage to 311, and to report street flooding with a precise location so crews could check for clogged storm drains and debris. LexCall is also reachable at (859) 425-2255.
The same release drew a line worth knowing before you call: in most cases, water coming in through basement walls, windows, sump pumps, gutters or private service lines is a private property issue, not a city infrastructure one. Flooding from the sanitary sewer is different, and the city's contractor can help with that cleanup. The sewer backup page covers it, and the basement page covers the private side.
For the river and creek levels that go with these watersheds, see the flood gauge page.
Watershed questions
How do I find out which watershed my Lexington house is in?
The City's watershed pages describe each one by area, and the Wolf Run page includes a map. As a rough guide from those pages: Wolf Run is southwest inside New Circle Road, West Hickman is south-central, East Hickman is the southeast edge, Cane Run runs north from central Fayette, and North Elkhorn covers the northeast.
Is my street on Lexington's flooding list?
Search the city's Stormwater Priority Projects Master List, January 2026 update, which is linked from the stormwater page. Each entry shows the watershed and a comment on whether it was completed, is active, or was removed.
Why did the city buy and tear down houses instead of fixing the drains?
The list does not explain each choice, but it ranks projects by an efficiency value, and several comments describe acquisitions paid for with FEMA grants. For Sandpiper, Kingston and Swigert, it says the project was recommended for removal because the disruption to the neighborhood and the cost/benefit ratio were unreasonable.
Who do I call when the street in front of my house floods?
LexCall at 311 or (859) 425-2255, with the precise location. The City says water entering through basement walls, windows, sump pumps or gutters is in most cases a private property issue rather than a city infrastructure one; a restoration company handles the drying.