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Water, water everywhere
Rain, rain, go away.
Many area residents were undoubtedly repeating that old saying as morning thunderstorms dumped an estimated 3-6 inches of rain Friday in Vernon County and about 2 inches in Bourbon County on Friday.
According to Bourbon County Emergency Man-ager Keith Jeffers, the swift intensity of the rainfall caused many of the city and county streets to become flooded and left hazardous driving conditions in its wake.
Officials at the Vernon County Ambulance District said that numerous motorists became stranded in the high water after attempting to drive on flooded roadways, but no swift water rescues were made.
Vernon County Sheriff Ron Peckman said that parts of Vernon County were deluged with 4 to 4.5 inches of rain in less that two hours, causing places to flood "that we've never seen flood before."
"I've never seen it (flash flooding) this bad," Peckman said.
Eight segments of Route 43 were under water; and some portions of U.S. 54 highway also were under water. Several county roads also were flooded.
Sheriff's deputies tried to respond to as many areas as possible in the hope of slowing people down and helping to prevent accidents.
"We were at several locations with lights on...we did the best we could."
Luckily, the sheriff's office was not needed for any water rescues.
"Several people hydroplaned into the ditches, things like that. We had a vehicle hydroplane into a creek," but those in the vehicle were able to escape the waters without assistance.
"There were fields that were completely underwater. The wind was blowing so much there were white caps. I've never seen this," Peckman said.
Holes appeared in several roads due to the inundation of water, and it's likely that some culverts were damaged. Peckman said that as the water recedes, they'll locate where such damage may have taken place.
Meanwhile, flash flooding also closed roads in Nevada, and residents in the town also said they'd seen areas under water during Friday morning's deluge that they had not seen under water before.
One Nevada resident on N. Washington St. was assisted in evacuating a flooded home, but no other rescues were required and no flood related injuries were reported by VCAD.
Ambulance district officials strongly urge all residents who encounter high water in situations such as Friday's storms to never drive over a flooded roadway if the depth of the water is not known.
According to the National Weather Service, a driver could lose control of a vehicle in as little as 6 inches of water and it takes just 24 inches to completely sweep a vehicle out of the roadway.
The Nevada R-5 school district felt the effects of Friday's storms as well, as Truman Elementary, the Bowman building, Nevada Middle School and Nevada Regional Technical Center all took on water during the storms.
Nevada R-5 superintendent Dr. David Stephens said that Truman Elementary has had some issues with flooding in the past due to drainage coming from other areas and flowing into the building. Many students were displaced as the water came flowing into the building as students were arriving for classes on Friday, forcing substantial changes to be made in order for classes to go on as usual.
Students were held in the Truman Elementary cafeteria and the high school gymnasium until the final decision had been made as to how the day's classes would be handled.
The fifth grade wing was the only part of the building that was not significantly impacted by the flooding and classes for those students went on inside Truman Elementary as usual, while the third graders were taken to the Bowman building and fourth grade classes were moved to the high school auditorium and gymnasium.
"At the time the flood started, we already had kids in the building," Stephens said. "We had water in the Tech Center, the Bowman building and the middle school, as well as Truman."
Stephens said that cleanup efforts are already being made and classes should resume at Truman Elementary and all other Nevada R-5 schools as usual on Monday. If that goal cannot be met, parents of all affected students will be notified however possible.
Although schools in the USD 234 school district were supposed to be in session on Friday, power outages caused the district to shut down for the day. In addition to the schools being without power, Jeffers said their were many power outages throughout Fort Scott and partial power outages in the southern part of the county.
Because of the power outages, officers with the Fort Scott Police Department were called to patrol several of the city intersections which had lost power until members of the Fort Scott Public Works were able to install stops signs, according to FSPD Lt. Shaun West.
In addition, a lightning strike temporarily affected some of the FSPD's services. Nevertheless, West said, the law enforcement agency was able to continue operations with the use of a back-up generator. Extra employees were brought in to help handle a large increase in the amount of incoming calls at the police department. Even with an increase in people who called the police station, West said the weather only attributed to a couple of minor traffic accidents.
Despite intense flooding within the city limits, Fort Scott Fire Department Lt. Dave Bruner said he and his crew were only dispatched to a couple of water related calls.
At 217 Franklin, a woman and some children were rescued from a house that was flooding and at another residence, the fire department investigated a gasoline odor, which was suspected of being caused by the flooding. On their way back to the fire station, Bruner said they came across a vehicle that was stalled in a flood of water. The firefighters jumped out of their vehicle and pushed the car to safety.
Although Bourbon County received an average of 3.5 inches of rainfall during the storm and winds in the local area reached about 55 m.p.h., Jeffers said the local situation could have been much worse.
In Crawford County, there is an estimated $1 million of damage due to the rain and winds which were estimated to have reached 100 m.p.h. in some areas, and thousands of people in both Crawford and Cherokee counties were without power Friday morning.
"It was just another one of our typical Kansas storms," Jeffers said. "Fortunately, we have dodged the worst part of the weather."
Even though Bourbon County was not hit as hard as some of the neighboring counties, Jeffers said it is important for area residents, businesses and public agencies to report to him any damages which are a direct result from the storm by e-mailing him at kjeffers@bourboncountyks.org.
In addition, those who have suffered damage are encouraged to take photographs of the damage, document the incident and inform their insurance companies.
In Vernon County, the water was receding by 3 p.m., but the work wasn't over. "Right now, we're monitoring the rivers. There'll be a lot of water coming this way from Kansas," Peckman said.
Flood warnings are in effect for the Marmaton, in Bourbon and Vernon County, through Wednes-day; the Little Osage River at Fulton in Bourbon County and near Horton in Vernon County until Tuesday, and the Osage River near Schell City, until further notice.
In all, Peckman said, "We were extremely lucky, what with the amount of water we had. If we don't get any more rain, we'll be OK. Most of us will be OK after all this , but the farmers are really going to be hit hard by this."
The next chance of rain is Sunday, when the National Weather Service is currently projecting a 30 percent chance of showers.