Kingfisher County commissioners were running fast and hard across their districts Wednesday after Tuesday’s flooding.

Flood waters washed out numerous roadways, some tinhorns and damaged some bridges.

County crews were repairing damage they could to keep roads passable, blocking off those that will require more extensive repairs at a later date while commissioners began the process of planning the work ahead of them.

No dollar amount of damage had been established by mid-week, but the cost is expected to be substantial.

Commissioners declared a county emergency on Tuesday as the result of the flooding.

City-county Emergency Management Director Steve Loftis said the declaration could be the basis for grants to help repair the damage.

It gets the county’s bid in for help on emergency repairs, he said.

All three county commissioners – Jeff Moss, District 1; Ray Alan Shimanek, District 2, and Heath Dobrovolny, District 3 – were in the field assessing damage and starting repairs at midweek.

Dobrovolny said his assessment as of Wednesday afternoon showed three culverts had been swept away by flooding streams and at least half of one bridge had been lost.

A cave-in at the approach to one bridge two miles west and one mile north of Okarche forced the closing of two miles of EW 880 road between NS 2780 and 2800.

Dobrovolny said all but a couple of roads had been reopened in District 3 by Wednesday afternoon, and he estimated it will take about two weeks to get them back in shape in time for grain harvest, which is coming up quickly.

That is dependent on no additional weather delays, he said.

Damage was heavy throughout the district, including the Loyal vicinity, north of Omega and southwest of Kingfisher.

Shimanek said many roads in District 2 had to be closed during the flooding Tuesday but two-thirds of them were back open Wednesday.

“We’ve lost a lot of rock, but it is not catastrophic,” Shimanek said.

Many roads are washed and will need repair, “ he said, but estimated 90 percent of them would be

Wheat 5-23 $4.10

down 9¢ from 5-20-19

drivable by the weekend and all could be put back into decent shape within the next two weeks, if weather permits.

“It could have been a lot worse,” he commented.

He said the cost of repairs was almost impossible to estimate at this point.

Moss said 20 different roads had to be closed in District 1 due to floodwaters.

Some streams were still running high on Wednesday.

“It’s tough to reset pipes when the water is still running,” he said, but assured that work could resume as quickly as the water went down.

He estimated that most of the less extensive repairs could be completed by the end of the week.

“We’ve already got a lot back up,” he said.

Moss had been out with state personnel Wednesday assessing the damage.

“We’re still gathering information,” he said.

Loftis said that while damage had been substantial, there were no reports of loss of life or serious injury.

Both S.H. 33 and U.S. 81 were closed by floodwaters on Tuesday, but reopened for traffic on Wednesday morning.

Loftis said no homes and few businesses had been damaged. He noted that Cowboy Roustabout and 33 Welding both had water in them, but they washed them out with power hoses and continued to operate.

He said Kingfisher Creek crested at 24 feet, three feet over flood stage, and Uncle John Creek at 24 feet seven inches. Flood stage begins at 21 feet.

The record flood level for Kingfisher Creek was 28 feet.

The creek had subsided to 16.7 feet at 1 p.m. Wednesday.

Uncle John Creek had receded to 17.30 feet at 6:19 a.m. Wednesday, allowing water to flow off the neighboring Kingfisher golf course, which took on the appearance of a lake Tuesday.

The Cimarron River crested at nearly 22 feet and was back down to 19.86 feet by Thursday morning.

“There were some low-lying areas along the river that were covered up,” Loftis said. “But around here, the river doesn’t really give us major problems until it gets to about 25 or 26 feet.”

The Twin Lakes area south of Crescent wasn’t so fortunate.

At least two homes had been swept into the river as rising waters ate away at shoreline in the area.

At least a dozen more homes were at risk as the weekend neared.

People in the Twin Lakes community began voluntarily evacuating the area Wednesday.