Editing Ottawa, Kansas (section)

===Flooding===
Ottawa has a history of [[flood]]ing because of its location straddling the Marais Des Cygnes river. The area's first recorded flood was the [[Great Flood of 1844]].  In 1928, a flood crested at 38.65&nbsp;feet and killed six people. Other flood years include 1904, when water crested at 36 feet and ran to a man's shoulders in the Santa Fe depot;<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.franklincokshistory.org/themes/events/disasters/floods/1904-flood/ |title=1904 Flood {{pipe}} Franklin County Kansas History Portal |access-date=March 29, 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170616221654/http://www.franklincokshistory.org/themes/events/disasters/floods/1904-flood/ |archive-date=June 16, 2017 |url-status=dead}}</ref> 1909, cresting at {{Convert|36.3|ft|m}}; 1915, cresting at {{Convert|31|ft|m}}, and 1944, cresting at {{Convert|36.5|ft|m}}.{{citation needed|date=March 2010}}

However, it is the [[Great Flood of 1951]] which is the most famous. It was about five inches higher than the 1928 flood. The flood of 1951 affected much of Missouri and Kansas and 41 people died. One-third of Ottawa was covered because of this flood.<ref>{{cite news |last1=Perry |first1=Charlie Perry, C.A. |title=USGS - Kansas Big Water |url=https://ks.water.usgs.gov/pubs/presentations/flood.1951.html |work=ks.water.usgs.gov |language=en}}</ref>

It is unlikely Ottawa will suffer major damage due to a flood again thanks to a series of levees and pumping stations built by the [[U.S. Army Corps of Engineers]] in the 1960s, which is part of a larger system of flood systems to regulate the Marais Des Cygnes River to the [[Missouri River]]. The levees built along the river are inspected on an annual basis to insure their quality.{{citation needed|date=March 2010}}