'So, all of our decisions were based on 'what are we going to do in the event of.' or 'how are we going to plan this building for what could happen.'' 'All of our decisions were based on what happened in '86,' Hull said. The tributary into the river is built to handle more water than the '86 flood. River Spirit Project Manager Randy Hull and his crew engineered a widened concrete drainage channel funneling storm runoff underneath the resort.

Some of these places have taken extra steps though to protect for the next flood disaster like Margartitaville Resort and Hotel. Many of these areas lie in the floodplain.

River Spirit is now processing many refunds on reservations, according to their social media posts.įlying over Bixby, Jenks and Tulsa, you can see how much has been built in some areas that were once flooded. Meyer interviewed the property management leaders for Creek Nation's River Spirit Resort & Casino.

the entire square mile is in the 500 year flood plain.

The casino is built in the 100 year flood plain.

the resort's brand new hotel, club, and concert auditorium are built in the floodway.

INCOG is the govt agency tasked with community planning and zoning research. KOTV's chief weather forecaster, Travis Meyer, wrote an excellent article for KOTV's News on 6 website, to talk about what dangers the Tulsa area may face (and is now suffering) because we build in so many risky low level properties which were very much underwater, in the 1986 flood, which was the result of massive emergency releases of Keystone Dam waters. In 2016, The Creek Nation boasted their excellence in avoiding the perils of the 1986 flooding when they built the newest additions to the River Spirit Casino.

River spirit casino tulsa flooded