Chouteau Bend Recreation Area Drying Out After Historic Rains

Residents at the Chouteau Bend recreation area in Mayes County are drying out from flooding earlier this week.

On Tuesday, about a dozen people were taken out by boat after the Grand River cut off access into the park.

Now, water that covered the road earlier in the week has pulled back, so people can come and go, but there's a lot of cleanup left to do and plenty of damage.

There was so much damage that owner Eddie Sinor said he’s not sure if he's going to rebuild everything that was lost.

The worst damage was right along the west bank of the river, where several docks were torn loose and swept away by the water, with entire trees going downstream.

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“Big trees; there was trees came through, some of them trees 200, 300 years old,” Sinor said.

Another dock was flattened in what Sinor said is the worst flooding he's seen in 30 years.

We asked if he would rebuild and he said no, because, “On account of the way the Corps’ managing it. I don’t have a protection cove, this is gonna happen again.”

Several homes have substantial flooding damage, and Sinor said with that kind of flooding he's just grateful no one was hurt.

“Water got up into them, some of them 18 inches to two feet. It shouldn’t have happened, but thankfully nobody got hurt,” he said.

While the water continues to drop, the cleanup will take months.