The highest point on the Ohio, and still a river town
Mount Vernon sits at the highest elevation on the Ohio River between Cincinnati and Cairo, Illinois, which is part of why it became a major port -- river traffic peaked here between 1850 and 1870, and the modern Ports of Indiana-Mount Vernon complex remains the seventh-largest inland port in the country. Being the high point on this stretch doesn't remove Mount Vernon from flood and storm exposure; it just changes where the water moves once it arrives.
Port-town infrastructure and storm response
A working port town accumulates industrial and residential structures right up against the water over generations, from the 1832 incorporation forward. Water extraction and reconstruction planning in Mount Vernon has to account for both the older river-facing core and the newer development that has grown up around the port complex since.