More than four inches of rain in a span of about four hours Saturday left some Lawrence drivers helpless, their vehicles in deep water as weather authorities issued a flash flood warning.
Lawrence Police blocked off the Second Street underpass in North Lawrence at 3 p.m., and wreckers had to tow at least two cars out of the water.
Patrons at nearby Johnny's Tavern, 401 N. Second St., watched and then laughed when a wrecker pulled out one of the cars, a silver hatchback with Kansas State University stickers on it.
"We thought it was funny; welcome to Lawrence," Janna Traver said.
A police car had been parked on the south side of the underpass to warn motorists away. Barricades were also in place. When the police car left later in the afternoon, patrons watched as another driver ignored the barricades, drove into the water and became stranded.
Jerry Karr, watch commander for Lawrence-Douglas County Fire & Medical, said his crew rescued two people from their vehicles near the underpass in what he said was seven to eight feet of water.
About the same time, Karr said rescuers responded to a report of children caught in a drainage creek near 21st Street and Naismith Drive. The crew never found the children. Although they received a report the children were rescued, fire and medical authorities never confirmed they were in danger to begin with, Karr said.
Authorities also responded to four to five calls of power lines down, which they reported to Westar Energy. Karla Olsen, of Westar, said the Lawrence area experienced no power outages as a result of the Saturday afternoon storms, which brought a brief interval of thunder and lightning but mostly just heavy rain.
Karr said the area was fortunate to have no serious accidents during the afternoon downpour on the Kansas Turnpike or other highways.
In the city, the abundance of water ran out of places to go as cars stalled around downtown streets. One section of Buford M. Watson Jr. Park made a popular drainage point as water flooded into and leveled off near the rims of the park's basketball hoops.
"We needed rain, but we didn't need it this hard," said Richard Copp, of Lawrence, Saturday.
Copp and his friend, Jim Brothers, sat down for drinks at Johnny's Saturday afternoon and didn't leave for a few hours to keep from getting wet.
"We pay for water runoff. Where's it going to here in North Lawrence?" Copp said.
Joe Randtke, a Kansas University junior, used the opportunity to paddle around the street in his canoe with some neighbor kids for about 15 minutes on Winterbrook Drive in Southwest Lawrence.
"We just saw the flooding. My neighbor and I were like, 'Man,'" Randtke said. "Then I said, 'Hey, I've got a canoe in the garage.' So we got it and went canoeing in the street."
6News meteorologist Tim Reith said Saturday afternoon that about 4.15 inches of rain hit Lawrence during the day. The National Weather Service in Topeka lifted its flash flood warning from Lawrence Saturday evening.
National Weather Service forecasts still warned of more rainfall possible late Saturday, which could possibly add to existing flooding problems.
The monthly rain average for August is 3.8 inches. The Lawrence area had already received six inches for August as of 10:15 Saturday, said John Woynick of the NWS in Topeka.
Comments
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bmwjhawk (anonymous) says…
I got some good pics of the 6 inches of sludge in my basement that backed up through the floor drain because of the overworked sewer lines. I, too, pray to those deities that the rains stop. And that my carpet dries out and smell goes away.
trueninetiesgirl (anonymous) says…
this flooding problem is why no bussiness want to put a big store in north lawrence.look just like the flood of 93.
ryanjasondesch (anonymous) says…
no power outages my ass!!! My power was out for a couple of hours and I was not happy about it. So I went to T's and got drunk.
bettie (anonymous) says…
i have a slight correction to this story:
mine was one of the two cars towed from the underpass on n. 2nd st. there was no barricade, no police car, no sign, nothing at all when i entered the underpass. there was a line of cars behind me, so when i reached the bottom (at about 2:45) and saw the standing water, i couldn't back up.
after about half an hour, during which a wonderful young man helped push my stalled car back up the incline and tried to start it, a police officer arrived and called a tow truck for me. also, during that half hour, a number of other cars made the same mistake.
when i finally left the scene in a tow truck at about 4:30, there were still no barricades or signs. there was finally a police car on the other side of the bridge, but that was after the other car mentioned had already been completely submerged. kudos to the team that arrived to pull that unfortunate woman from her car!
having said all of that, i must say i was amazed at how stupid people are. i felt ridiculous enough, having gotten into this mess, but there were actually people driving around the police car that arrived after i got stuck. he was parked perpendicular to the street, with every possible light flashing, and still i watched him pull around to cut off at least 3 sports cars that had driven around him. and this is going on when one car is obviously submerged in there! (you could see the back door sticking out of the water, but that was it.)
lovely1 (anonymous) says…
Why dont the police put barracades or park their cars to warn you from getting off at the east lawrence exit? We did not know why everyone was getting on the highway, when we were getting off.............. then we got STUCK!!!!! Thanks lawrence police dept. My car is in the shop today, think they'll pay the bill?
Skeptic (anonymous) says…
It's good to see the $1M pumping station in north lawrence is doing it's job.
Not.