Storm brings another inch of rain to Wellington; Arkansas River flooding in Oxford
by Tracy McCue, Sumner Newscow — How’s that saying go? When it rains it pours.
Another inch of rain dowsed the Sumner County area early Tuesday morning. Several people experienced electrical outages in Wellington – but not a significant amount.
Cliff Zens, Wellinton Interim Director of Electric Production/Distribution, said there was an electrical outage south of the railroad tracks. Other than that there were isolated cases of fuses getting blown due to the high amount lightening with the storm.
Director of Public Works Jeremy Jones said the street department received a couple of calls from significant tree damage blocking streets, but not much more.
According to the “official” Sumner Newscow weatherman, Wellington received one inch of rain as of 6 a.m. this morning. On August 4, Wellington received 1.4 inches, 6/10s of an inch on Aug. 3, .3 inches on Aug. 2. Total for the month of August is 3.3 inches of rain!
Wellington City Manager Gus Collins said the lake level is now at 28 inches below normal. We are still not there yet, but we’re getting closer.
“That doesn’t count the runoff from last night’s storm,” Collins said. “But we have made great strides. We were at 40 inches below normal level just a couple of weeks ago.”
As was mentioned, Oxford is receiving some flooding from the Arkansas River. As of Tuesday, Aug. 6, the flood warning by the National Weather Service is still in effect. The flood stage is 17.0 feet and the river is currently at 18.9 feet. Minor flooding is occurring and minor flooding is forecasted. Low lying agricultural fields have flooded north of the river gage site.
The NWS said the river will fall to below flood stage by Wednesday morning, and be at 16.0 feet on Thursday.
The latest U.S. Drought Monitor is down to a level 1, meaning it is abnormally dry (see site here). Level 5 is the most severe which is what the bulk of western Kansas is facing. That data was released on July 30. Perhaps for the first time in quite awhile, Sumner County may be taken off the drought list when the next survey comes out.
