Don’t pump basements into sewer, residents urged
Tonkawa’s sewer system is full, City Manager Kirk Henderson announced Tuesday. “If residents are needing to pump ground water from their basements, we would ask that they discharge it to the outside of their home and not into the sewer system. Obviously, the water table is extremely high and we may be dealing with this issue for some time,” he said.
Please try to keep buckets and any containers that would hold water empty to help control the mosquito population, Henderson urged.
Longtime river observers, Charles Conaghan and Bob Diemer, consider this latest flooding on the Salt Fork of the Arkansas as historic because the river has crested three times this past week without falling below flood stage of 17 feet in between crests.
The highest all time crest was in October of 1973, when a 16 inch dumped on Enid, OK and the watersheds to the north. The crest was then estimated at 28.98 because the river covered the river reading instruments. The recent flooding has had crests of 22.20, 26.62, and 24.6. National Weather Service forecasters continue to forecast a slow rundown thinking the river will be back in its banks sometime Friday May 31.
State highway department employees have had Highway 77 closed, south of town, for water on the road since May 8 and have been hard pressed to keep barricades and repair the wash outs that have been caused by the relentless rains.
Most rain gauges in Tonkawa have been filled by eleven inches. Some have reported as much as twelve inches of rain. Water in basements and storm cellars have had Tonkawa residents purchasing all available sump pumps that the local hardware stores have available.
One of the biggest reasons for the prolonged flood is because there is no place for the water to drain. Flooding on the Arkansas River watershed upstream from Kaw Lake had filled Kaw to capacity. The Army Corp Of Engineers has been releasing water from Kaw at the rate of 60,000 cubic feet per second, but has had to increase the rate to 105,000 cfs. This has caused flooding downstream in Ponca City. With river channel full there is no way for the water to recede.
Twice it has looked like Tonkawa might become an island. The river threatened to close I-35 at mile marker 213 but then crested below predictions. ODOT officials were ready with barricades should it be ...
