(ABC 6 News) – It’s the time of year when too much rain can flood the streets and your backyards. It’s not an issue right now, but what happens when it does?

The City of Rochester has a system of reservoirs and dams in place to regulate water in the Med City. RPU Project Development Manager and Flood Control System Engineer Matt Crawford says it’s all built because of Rochester’s high flooding potential.

“Rochester’s kinda like a bowl, everything goes into town and goes north, so obviously whenever you have large rivers going through your town you have floods plains, and we have all the creeks coming in and they have flood plains so when all that water comes into town, yes, it could create a situation where it comes out of its banks and floods residents and businesses.” Crawford said.

Major flooding like that has happened in the past, like in 1978. Most of the city went underwater, leaving damages in the millions of dollars to fix.

But since the flood system’s creation, flooding doesn’t happen as often.

“Realistically the amount of damage we have prevented with the flood control, has been well repaid for the investment we made, so we’ve, it’s been a good investment for the city it’s paid dividends to protect the residents and the businesses.” Crawford said.

Constant maintenance and monitoring are done on the structures, ensuring they can prevent waters from getting too high in the city.