Area residents trying to dry out after deluge

May 08, 2008 10:05 pm

— From staff reports
news@joplinglobe.com
Joplin North Little League president Jim Davis had a sense of history repeating itself Thursday as he raked two feet of mud, trash and debris from a baseball field fence.
Last summer’s flood in Landreth Park devastated the league’s fields, causing $70,000 worth of damage. Wednesday night’s flood reached higher than last June’s flood at the park, but Davis said the situation looked worse than it was.
“We learned a lot from last year’s flood and got equipment to higher ground safely,” he said. The water knocked down fences again, but it didn’t damage mowing equipment in storage sheds. The league will have a work day beginning at 9 a.m. Saturday. Davis said he encouraged people to arrive with trash bags and rakes.
Heavy rains overnight Wednesday in Joplin, Webb City and the surrounding area took a toll on buildings, roads and property.
Emergency crews kept busy rescuing stranded motorists.
Webb City
Steve Garrett, city administrator in Webb City, said about 30 houses in town had flood damage to some extent. No injuries were reported, he said.
The asphalt on Rudondo Drive was lifted off its base by the rising water, Garrett said.
“Basically, it floated off its base because of the velocity and amount of water, and saturation of the ground,” he said.
He said Aylor Street approaching the bridge over Sunset Creek collapsed from the effects of the water.
“The biggest part of the problem was the saturation of the ground,” Garrett said. “Folks are telling me they’ve not seen it like this, ever. Other than building an ark, we just have to prepare for the worst and hope for the best.”
Garrett said some cars were washed off roads and some motorists required rescuing.
Bev Elder, who lives at 512 Rudondo Drive, said some of her neighbors were leaving and her back yard was flooded. She said she was surprised when she woke up Thursday to find water in her garage and rising in the crawl space under her house to within a foot of her flooring.
“I’ve lived here 18 years and never seen it so bad,” Elder said. “That’s what scared me.”
She spent the morning clearing her yard of flood debris and pumping water from her crawl space.
Brad Stone was doing the same thing about two blocks away. He said the water reached two feet off the ground, at its highest.
Joplin
Keith Stammer, Jasper County emergency management director, said 1.86 inches of rain fell in the hour between 9:53 and 10:53 p.m. Wednesday. The previous hour had 1.56 inches of rainfall.
“That’s just phenomenal,” he said.
Stammer said the occupants of three houses in Joplin required assistance from emergency workers to leave their homes overnight. The Joplin Fire Department assisted several motorists who were stranded on flooded streets.
The water opened a sinkhole under the foundation of a house just north of 15th Street and Kansas Avenue, forcing the occupants to leave.
Water rushed into offices just southwest of Seventh Street and Illinois Avenue, said Sharon Love, financial adviser with the Edward Jones office there. Love said the water entered the office about 11 p.m. Wednesday.
Fans and other equipment were in use Thursday to dry out the damp carpet.
“It’s not as bad as it was last June 12,” Love said, adding that was when floodwater previously entered the building.
“We’re conducting business, but it’s a little noisy,” she said, referring to the fans.
Attorney Mike Roberts stopped at the Edward Jones office to use the copier, because the water knocked out the copier in the office he shares with attorney Ty Gaither.
“We’re closed right now,” Roberts said Thursday. He said the flood’s timing was good, since courts were closed Thursday for Truman Day.
He said the floor and a few files were soaked by the water.
“I imagine we’ll be back in business tomorrow,” Roberts said.
Stammer said that because of all the pavement and concrete in the area, the only place for the water to go is into the storm drains. When so much rain falls so quickly, the storm drains are overwhelmed. He said there is no simple solution to the problem.
Kansas, Oklahoma
Elsewhere, two people spent five hours on the roof of a car east of McCune, Kan., until rescuers could safely reach them. The Crawford County Sheriff’s Department reported that Ryan O’Brien, 21, of St. Paul, Kan., and Albany Mattick, 19, of Galesburg, Kan., became stranded when their car went over a hill and into the flooded Lightning Creek on the other side.
The Chanute (Kan.) Fire Department’s Swift Water Rescue Team was called. Members attempted to walk out to the two, but they abandoned the effort when it was determined that the water was moving too fast. The team launched a rescue boat at first light and retrieved the two, who were cold but uninjured, authorities said.
The Crawford County Sheriff’s Department also retrieved Jan Van Dertteul, 58, of the Netherlands, early Thursday after his vehicle was washed off 530 Avenue near the south end of the Pittsburg bypass.
Fire departments from Galena, Kan., and Asbury late Wednesday afternoon rescued two motorists who were stranded in high water at Northeast 110 and Scammon roads in Cherokee County, Kan., said Jason Allison, county emergency management director.
Allison said another rescue took place about 10:30 a.m. Thursday at Northeast 100 and Scammon roads. The Columbus (Kan.) Fire Department and the Parsons (Kan.) Swift Water Rescue Team rescued a woman and her three small dogs from a stranded vehicle.
Gary Brooks, emergency management director in Miami, Okla., said Thursday afternoon that floodwater had entered at least one house in the Sky Ranch development in the northeast part of town and was threatening others.
He said the Neosho River at Miami was over its banks but had started to recede.
Staff members Roger McKinney, Roger Nomer and Andy Ostmeyer contributed to this report.



Double rainfall

Megan Terry, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Springfield, reported these rainfall amounts from the Joplin airport:
For the 24 hours ending at 1:26 a.m. Thursday, the airport reported 5.71 inches of rain, bringing the total for May to 6.39 inches.
The rainfall total for April was 7.42 inches, the 14th wettest April on record.
The rainfall total for the year is 26.33 inches.
“You’re 13.25 inches above normal,” Terry said. “You are pretty much double your normal right now.”

Copyright © 1999-2008 cnhi, inc.