Flooding ‘to get worse before it gets better,’ Wichita meteorologist says

Wichita has already gotten about 3.5 inches of rain since Monday, and the city and surrounding areas are “not out of the woods yet,” a local meteorologist warned.

The Wichita area is expected to get 1 to 3 more inches of rain, with most of it hitting east of the turnpike, meteorologist Brad Ketcham with the Wichita branch of the National Weather Service said.

“There’s still going to be a lot today,” Ketcham told The Wichita Eagle. He said the rain should continue falling through the end of Tuesday.

The weather system — “a beast” — should start winding down late Tuesday and early Wednesday, Ketcham said, but the flooding is “going to get worse before it gets better.”

That’s because “almost every bit of” rain that is falling will soon be running off into rivers and other waterways that are already rising to the top, Ketcham said.

“Although the heavy rain threat will slowly end in a west to east manner late tonight, river flooding will continue,” the weather service said in a hazardous weather outlook warning.

“Flooding is a delayed process,” Ketcham said. “It takes awhile for all the water to hit the ground, run off and get where it needs to be.”

And when rivers and creeks flood over, it will “impact nearby farmland, roads, and possibly some homes and businesses,” the Wichita branch of the weather service warned.

While flooding continues to get worse, “people should be very cautious on county roads — turn around and don’t drown,” Ketcham said. Many rural roads in central and southwest Kansas have already flooded, according to the weather service.

Looking forward, the “slow-moving system” should start moving east Wednesday morning, Ketcham said, and that should hopefully help sweep Hurricane Michael away from the Carolinas.

This story was originally published October 9, 2018 at 11:21 AM with the headline "Flooding ‘to get worse before it gets better,’ Wichita meteorologist says."