Heavy rainfall in Lincoln and Pottawatomie counties caused several bridge outages, closing some roads and partially washed out others.
There were reports of up to seven inches or more of rain in Lincoln County and five or more inches in Pottawatomie County.
District 3 Commissioner Lee Doolen in Lincoln County said the Brush Springs Road near S. 3380 and E. 1060 Road is closed due to a bridge out.
Doolen noted, “We’ll seek state funding. It’s an older bridge, but the way it broke we can fix it in house I think. And I think fairly quickly we can get that road back open, unless we find something once it dries up and we start to repair it.”
Doolen added, “Overall, I got really lucky.” He said he thought District 2 Commissioner Marlin Miller didn’t get hit any harder than he did.
District 1 Pottawatomie County Commissioner Melissa Dennis said she had two roads closed. “Garrett’s Lake east of SH 99 and 349 and East Independence. I might be able to get state help on those,” she thinks.
“There are quite a few roads damaged,” Dennis said. She was also watching the area of Garrett’s Lake Road and Brangus Road where the North Canadian River was rising. “I’m pretty nervous about that. I’m watching it closely.
“There’s lots of water around,” she said. She described the damage as “widespread.” Lincoln County Emergency Management Director Brandon Morgan said the tinhorn washed out on S. 3400 Road between 940 and 950 Road and is closed until further notice. That is located southwest of Chandler, Morgan said.
The bridge near S. 3310 Road and 930 Road is out and is closed until further notice. Morgan noted, “3310 is three miles west of Wellston on SH 66 and then back south to 930.”
District 1 Commissioner Carl Munson in Lincoln County pointed to several road problems, including two that were closed late last week.
He said, “One is 920 Road between 3500 Road and 3510 Road near Davenport Lake.”
He indicated that would have been at least partially fixed by this past weekend. “It may not be permanently fixed but at least partially.
“And 3580 back north of 1000 Road east of SH 99 which is about half way between Stroud and Prague. We should have it open by late Monday or Tuesday,” he thought.
Munson, elaborating on the severity of the rainfall, explained, “About every tinhorn and culvert we had wasn’t able to hold all the water and we spent a lot of time trying to clear that off the roads.”
Munson noted, too, “Some roads down near the Deep Fork River are still under water and we’re not able to get to some of those roads.
“Crews worked Friday, which we are normally off, and also on Saturday.”