Wednesday, September 14, 1977
9
University Daffy Kansan
Staff Photo by GEORGE MILLENER
Mornina viiil
Policeman, dog heroes of flood
Staff Writer
replace storefront plate glass windows that had been washed out by floodwaters from Brush Creek.
By WALT BRAUN
TONGANOXIE—The residents of the Sturgeon Trail Park in this town 15 miles east of Lawrence returned yesterday to their flooded homes and gutted yards. Only news that the death toll in Kansas City was reminded them of how lucky they had been.
Lonesome's barking alarmed his owner,
Donald Jones, who awoke to find water
creeping under his door. Jones alerted
him and waded out of the park to higher ground
40 the families in the trailer park owe their lives to an alert police officer and a bail bond.
Burns, who lives in the trailer park, had checked the water level in the creek at 4:15 a.m. and returned to his trailer for the night. Fifteen minutes later, with water at his doorstep three feet above the ground, he found a hole in the street to warn neighbors of the catastrophe.
Country Club Plaza merchants watched over their stores while waiting for workmen to
Flood coverage was provided by Kansan staff writers Jane Piper, David AIdolf, Walt Braun, Kevin Kious, Dave Toplikar and Vennie White.
Patrolman Larry Burns, Tonganice Police Department, and a small dog named Lonesome, responded simultaneously when he swept its banks at 4:30 Monday morning.
WHILE BURNS was waking unsuspecting residents, Lonesome, a small dog that lived under the trailer nearest the creek, was barking furiously at the rising water.
Frary awoke his wife, and they watched
3
the water climb the walls of their trailer while they waited for help.
Help came quicklv.
Burns, after waking most of the trailer park, had started his motorbate and drove from trailer to trailer picking up the startled, nanic-stricten residents.
BY DAWN, ALL the residents were safety
and into any dry building that could hold them.
Ten hours later, the water had receded
but more than 30 cars had been buried by
the storm.
The water, which rose to more than four feet, toppled one trailer, ruined three others, and soaked carpets, furniture and belongings in 37 of the 49 trailers in the park.
Burns' boat didn't fare much better. He said that banging it into trainters and poles had put a hole in its side, and driving in shallow water had chewed its blade.
"I guess when the good Lord decides it's time for a flood, then it's time for another flood," he said. "There isn't anything anyone down here can do about it."
"It's been totaled, along with my 74
downtown motorcycle. I could see were the lights on of my police."
Ronald DeGrave, who had moved his new trailer into the park last week, has not decided yet what he will do. Like many of the doors, he did not have flood insurance.
FRARY, WHO survived a similar flood there in 1972, said no one thought the creek would overflow again because its banks had been flooded, several feet to prevent a recurrence.
Staff Photo by GEORGE MILLENER
Cleaning up
Kansas City, Mo., shopkeepers try to remove a thick layer of mud that remained after floodwaters retreated yesterday. Many merchants lost stocks of merchandise that had been damaged by the flooding.
Plaza...
DORIS MIKE, Salvation Army Squad Captain, said she had been at the Plaza since 7 a.m., feeding wet shivering people, like Monteil and White.
From nage one
"We need to get these cars out of the way so people can get into their stores."
One witness said earlier in the morning a man was seen walking on the area, but a bus stop is already clear.
"There's no rest for us. We've been working our cans off." Mike said.
Mike had been awake since midnight when she was called to set up an emergency center at the Blue Valley Community Center.
She kept in touch with workers in other parts of the city with a CB radio.
Melinda Minks, director of the center, said she had seen about 150 persons affected
by the flooding of the Blue River. The center located clothing, food and shelter for those who needed it and helped others contact friends or relatives.
Another shelter was set up at the Seventh Day Adventist Church in the area. Ida Lewis, who had been at the center at 4:30 a.m., said they had seen about 25 people who needed food, clothing or shelter. Friends of the church were most of those affected by the flooding, she said.
FRANK SPINK, director of emergency preparedness for the city, said yesterday he was called in to help from relatives or friends of missing persons. He said some of the inquiries might not be answered.
Flood
their car was swept off the road by a flooded creek.
From page one
Rescue workers concentrated their efforts yesterday on underground garages in the Plaza area, pumping them out in search of additional victims, Spink said.
A Salvation Army shelter with room for 300 was available near the area. Only four persons had used the shelter, and they were to go friends' homes, a corpsman said.
"We're just praying for it (the weather) to be dry," she said.
The flash flood was the result of more than a foot of heavy rain in a 24-hour period, which ended at 1 a.m. yesterday. It was the heaviest rainfall in Kansas City since the National Weather Service started keeping records in 1890. The weather service reported 43.9 inches of rainfall in the Plaza on January 5, according to measurements of 16 inches in other sections of the city. Light rain fell until about noon yesterday.
The damage in the Plaza was compounded early yesterday by a natural gas explosion that wrecked about a half-block of businesses. Destroyed were three restaurants, a custom tailor shop and a pet lambmen friend related fires into the afternoon.
The center was empty at 6 last night, but Lewis said it would remain as long as she could.
Although no flood damages were reported in Lawrence, the railroad underpass of U.S. 240 was closed because it closed temporarily Monday night because of high water. Fifteen miles east of Lawrence in Tonganoxie, families in a trailer village closed because of high waters Monday night.
A LINE OF severe thunderstorms, which developed west of Topeka Monday afternoon, was part of a storm front that dumped over three inches of rain on Lawrence and 10 inches on Tonganoxie Sunday and Monday nights.
In addition to his request for disaster aid for northeastern Kansas, Bennett said he also planned to ask the Small Business Administration for a disaster declaration that would open the way for aid in rebuilding small business and industries.
"The adverse impact on homes, businesses and publicly owned property has been tremendous and may reach into the millions of dollars." Bennett said yesterday. "Counties families and businesses throughout northeastern Kansas will be involved."
PRIVATE DAMAGE in the Kansas City area is expected to be many times greater than the public damage, but it is unknown whether it would compare to the $1 billion price tag placed on the damage from a 1951 flood of the Kansas and Missouri Rivers.
John Burge, assistant city manager of Kansas City, Mo., said preliminary reports indicated nearly 700 homes, apartments and businesses damaged by a school district spokesman said 20 of the 90 school buildings incurred major damage that may exceed $750,000. Kansas City has received $104 million in
Fortunately, heavy rains ended yesterday, and the heat that caused prediction no longer predicts rain from a rainfall.
The storm knocked out about 20,000 telephones and left about 25,000 electrical customers without power in the Kansas City metropolitan area.
electric substation, at 1435 and Raytown,
was the hardest hit, according to officials.
Southwestern Bell officials said that all available crews were working overtime, but that high waters prevented workers from traveling on the flat areas in the Plaza and Johnson County.
Various shelters for the homeless sprang up around the city by yesterday morning, but many volunteer workers reported that a family had found shelter with family and friends.
"IT MAY BE days before service is restored in some cases," Max Cox, Southwestern Bell services manager, said. "A good many of the stations still are under
The American Red Cross, the Salvation Army, the Seventh Day Adventist Church and several city community centers were also involved in providing clothing, shelter and medical care.
"THE DESTRUCTION was so widespread it is still difficult to determine for sure how many people need shelter," he said. "We have a director, said. 'There were as many as 15,000 people displaced at one time or another and there are at least 500 families in the Heart of America Mobile Home Park.' We know they will return to their homes for another day or two."
Damages in the suburban areas of Kansas City were confined mainly to property. The city of Mission was hit hard, and police reported extensive damage in the commercial area. However, no damage estimates had been compiled by last night.
Kansas City Power and Light Co. officials predicted that all power in the city would be
Of the 25,000 customers without service following the storm, all but about 5,000 had饮用水.
Damage in Overland Park and Roeland Park was confined to houses. Police in Overland Park estimated about 50 per cent of the homes with basements sustained by fire. Police departments in all areas are concentrating mainly on cleanup efforts today.
EXTENSIVE FLOODING was reported in Mission Hills. Horms along Brush Creek received extensive damage from rising waters, and residents recorded whole households of possessions were washed downstream.
Another hard hit area was the east side of Kansas City, where the Blue River was out of reach. The mayor said the river
trailer park of 500 units and caused damage in the Leeds industrial district.
Other areas of the city, including the Stockyards, near the spot of last summer's Republican National Convention, escaped serious damage.
ARMY ENGINEERS closed the gates at Clinton Reservoir yesterday morning as a
Travis Brann, emergency preparedness director for Douglas County, said yesterday that a crest of 17 feet on the Kansas River at Lawrence was expected by this morning; one foot short of flood level. However, Brann said no flooding was expected.
precautionary measure, but the gates are expected to be opened again this morning. Closing the gates, which will become a standard procedure when the reservoir is completed, allows the Kansas River to recede quicker.
According to Phil Schideler of the weather service, the unusually heavy rains of the last few days were caused by a slow moving front. Schideler said the rain stagnated in one spot because of a slight amount of air motion.
Little rain is predicted in the Lawrence area for the next few days, but the National Weather Service in Topeka predicts light rains again this weekend.
Staff Writer
Rv KEVIN KIOUS
Four in family killed
LEAWOOD—Four members of a Prairie Village family were killed Monday night when a swollen creek current swept their car off a leawood street.
The bodies of Marshall L. Klenstein and his daughter, Jennifer, 3, were recovered Monday night by Leawood police in a car that caught in a creek and snagged against a tree.
The windshield of the car was washed out by the strong current in the creek, and the bodies of Margaret and her boyfriend swept away. The woman's body was found yesterday morning in a tree near the bank of the creek about three feet from the creek. Her body was found nearby in the creek bed.
Jackie Moore, who lives at 7011 Lee Blvd., near the creek overflowed, said yesterday that Kleinstein had tried to drive through the water, which was as high as the
windows of his car, about 10:30 Monday night.
Moore said she assumed the car had made it through safely until she saw motorists stopping at the creek because they had seen Winstein's Mercedes-Benz washed off the road.
"It was a river by then." she said.
In the past, the creek had been so small that it didn't have a name, she said.
Moore said police arrived a few minutes late, but the water in the creek behind her house had risen to the level of her second story windows and the Mercedes couldn't be reached until the water receded a few minutes later.
A team of about 15 firemen and policemen and 15 onlookers searched the area, but had to temporarily call off the efforts as the creek began to rise again.
The Kleinstein, who lived at 8221 Rosewood Lane, were reported by police to have been on their way home during the height of the storm.
Flood damage, deaths in Kansas City area
Staff illustration by David Miller