Overnight storm leads to fatal crash and water rescues in Butler County
Friday morning’s storms across south-central Kansas left one person dead and other needing rescue in Butler County.
According to Butler County dispatch, a fatal crash occurred at around 5 a.m. after a driver hit a tree that had fallen in the storm in the southwest part of the county. The flash flooding that was the result of more than 3 inches of rain in parts of the county also led to a few water rescues and responses to flooded vehicles stalled in intersections, dispatch supervisor Jody Mader said.
The water rescues happened at around 7:30 a.m. in two locations in El Dorado: 12th and Orient and at Towanda and Alleghany. A third water rescue happened southwest of Towanda at around 9 a.m.
The rescues were all reported as one vehicle with one person and no injuries, Mader said. Officers responded to around a half dozen calls in El Dorado of flooded vehicles stalled in intersections, she said.
El Dorado had roughly 3.25 inches of rain during a 24-hour period that ended at 7 a.m., according to the Community Collaborative Rain, Hail and Snow Network. Augusta saw the most rain in the county with 3.75 inches.
Butler County Emergency Management director Keri Korthals said flash flooding filled ditches that were already soaked from rainfall earlier in the week, leaving it nowhere to go but into the streets.
“It came down so fast and so hard and overloaded those ditches and storm sewers and drainage systems,” Korthals said. “But then the good thing is those types of events usually recede a little more quickly too. That river flooding, those are more of a longer-term event. It takes a longer time to build to that crest and then a longer period of time to recede, so we haven’t gotten into that sort of situation yet. We are definitely going to be monitoring what are rivers are doing.”
At 5:03 a.m., the National Weather Service in Wichita said “strong storms are possible” late Friday afternoon and into the night across central, south-central and southeast Kansas.
“Dime to quarter size hail and 50 to 60 mph winds are the main impacts,” the NWS wrote.
The Community Collaborative Rain, Hail and Snow Network reported heavy rainfall in southeast Kansas. In Montgomery County, 3.78 inches of rain fell in the northern part of the county.
Storm chaser Charles Peek posted videos of flooded roads in Independence on Twitter. In one video, he showed the driver of a Jeep going around a barricade and driving down a flooded road.
This story was originally published May 15, 2020 at 11:36 AM.