Flooding forces hundreds of residents from their homes in Kansas, Texas

Monday, July 2, 2007

OSAWATOMIE -- Even after sunshine returned to southeast Kansas and southwest Missouri, rivers swollen by days of heavy rain continued to rise as flood surges moved downstream.

While the rain had mostly stopped Monday morning, the National Weather Service extended a flash flood watch for six southeast Kansas counties -- Allen, Labette, Montgomery, Neosho, Wilson and Woodson -- because major flooding continued in area rivers.

The state was providing water to several communities where flooding had overwhelmed water treatment plants, said Sharon Watson, spokeswoman for the Kansas Emergency Management Agency. Fourteen shelters had been opened and were housing about 340 people early Monday.

In addition, more than 42,000 gallons of crude oil spilled into the Verdigris River from the Coffeyville Resources refinery Sunday, Watson said.

The plant was shutting down in response to the flooding when the accident occurred. The plant had been transferring oil from a storage facility to the refinery's main storage tank. Because of an elevation difference between the two tanks, the oil continued to flow and caused the main tank to overflow, she said.

''We're asking everyone to avoid the floodwaters (in the Coffeyville area),'' Watson said.

Maj. Gen. Tod Bunting, the state adjutant, said the oil was expected to flow from the Verdigris to the Neosho River and eventually end up in Grand Lake, Okla.

''The water's moving too fast for us to do anything with it right now,'' Bunting said Monday morning.

In Osawatomie, which evacuated 40 percent of its 4,600 residents when areas near two rivers flooded, Mayor Philip Dudley kept an eye on Pottawatomie Creek on the town's south flank and the Marais des Cygnes on the north.

''I think the Marais des Cygnes will be OK,'' Dudley said. ''I'm still concerned about Pottawatomie Creek. It's supposed to get over 49 feet on Monday.''

The Kansas National Guard was sent to help with a mandatory evacuation of Osawatomie, one of the hardest-hit towns in the region. The levees and dikes held, after reinforcement work by volunteers with sandbags, but rainwater pooling in low-lying areas overwhelmed pumps and flooded neighborhoods on both sides of town.

Retired welder Claude Blackmon, 65, stood in a street in southeast Osawatomie and pointed out the mobile home where he had lived for the two years since his wife died.

It wasn't easy to spot. Water covered all but the top 18 inches of the trailer.

Blackmon was able to save his riding lawnmower, his guns and some important papers. Everything else -- his new appliances, his family heirlooms -- was inundated by the fast-rising water.

And none of it, Blackmon said, was insured.

''I don't know what I'm going to do,'' he said. ''I'm a little too old to start over now.''

Forecasters said it could be days before area rivers begin returning to normal. In Independence and Coffeyville, officials were preparing for additional flooding along the Verdigris River, which already has set record levels, as the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers opened floodgates at the Elk City and Fall River Toronto Lake reservoirs farther upstream to alleviate pressure. Andy Kmetz, with the corps' office in Tulsa, Okla., said officials tried to hold back floodwaters as long as possible.

''When you get up to the point where it's full, for the safety of the structure and the dam you have to release what's coming in,'' Kmetz said.

The Verdigris River at Independence set a new record of 52.4 feet Sunday morning, shattering the old mark of 47.6 feet and more than 20 feet above flood stage. In Coffeyville, the old record of 26.6 feet fell Saturday night as the river surged past 29 feet, more than 10 feet above flood stage.

''Releasing the water may not cause the river to crest higher, but it may cause the crest to remain for a longer period of time,'' said Robb Lawson, a National Weather Service meteorologist in Wichita.