The sudden power of Mother Nature was on display in two instances Friday that required rescues to avert tragedy.

Fast-rising water in a usually dry creek bed trapped a woman and her two young nephews in northwest Douglas County, and an 11-year-old was pulled safely from a drainage culvert during intense flash flooding in western Lawrence.

The flooding was caused by a cloudburst during the late-morning and early-afternoon hours Friday that dumped about five inches of rain in some parts of Douglas County, said Darrel Smith, a meteorologist for the National Weather Service in Topeka.

Northwest of Lawrence near North 1750 Road, the usually dry Baldwin Creek looked like a river spanning about 30 feet in width.

Judy McNish, from her nearby home, saw the rising water. She tried to keep an eye on it while taking care of her two nephews, 6-year-old Blake McNish and 5-year-old Quade Corel.

“All morning I went to check and the water wasn’t out of bounds,” she said.

But in a flash, the water had risen so high that McNish couldn’t drive through it in her car, leaving her and the boys trapped.

McNish said she did the only things she could do — keep calm, call for help and wait.

“We had to wait,” she said. “There wasn’t a thing we could do.”

Have boat, will travel

Emergency workers were called out at 1:21 p.m., said Bill Stark, a division chief with Lawrence-Douglas County Fire & Medical. Emergency workers, stopped themselves by the rising water, had to drive farther north and head back west to the opposite side to get to McNish and her nephews.

Even taking the detour, the emergency workers found, the only way to get to McNish and her nephews was by boat. Stark said a crew of workers took a vehicle with four-wheel drive with a boat in tow down to the area.

Using the boat, firefighters got to the three and transported them to safe ground.

Ivan and Betty Corel, Quade’s parents, were on the scene when their son walked down North 1750 Road with emergency workers, his aunt and his cousin.

Betty Corel said she knew all along her sister, Quade and Blake would be fine.

“But, it’s a relief,” she said.

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“Like an eternity”

Elliott Johnson, 11, had been watching the rising flood water rushing down a creek that cuts through Orchards Executive Golf Course, at 15th Street and Lawrence Avenue, with two friends when he slid into the cascading water, said his father, Mark Johnson.

Elliott had been sucked into a culvert at a low water crossing between the tee box and the fairway of hole four on the golf course. In the metal pipe culvert, the water had risen up to Elliott’s shoulders. One of the boys had stayed behind to keep Elliott’s head above water, while another had gone for help.

Then Mark Johnson found himself waist-deep in the water.

“One of the boys’ dads and I just started pulling on him,” Mark Johnson said, as his son received medical attention Friday afternoon on Wellington Court. “I just kept pulling on him, and he kept pulling against me. He just said his pants — his rain suit had filled up. That just made it harder.

“For his dad, it seemed like an eternity.”

Elliott turned out to be OK, his father said. The other boys were fine, too.

“The medics are giving him a once over,” Mark Johnson said. “He’s fine.”

Lawrence police Sgt. Dan Ward said parents had Elliott out before police got on the scene.

The incidents were just two of dozens of calls during Friday’s downpour to which emergency workers responded.

“This is what we do,” said Mark Bradford, deputy chief of the Lawrence-Douglas County Fire & Medical. “It’s what we’re trained for.”