4 inches in 4 hours

Downpour catches motorists by surprise

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.