Heavy Rain, Storms Lead To Flooding In Parts Of Okmulgee County

Monday, swift water rescue crews are on standby in Okmulgee after the Emergency Management Director said more than ten inches of rain was reported. Continuous rainfall turned creeks into rushing rivers, shutdown highways and roads, and cause flooding in streets and homes.

“There’s actually a lot of blockage down this street on 6thstreet at least where I went. It looks like some of the trucks it was even hard to get through cause the water was so deep,” said Ashley Chastain.

The flooding was so bad Highway 75 was shut down for several hours. “It’s going to be clear across our county. I’ve got bridges washed out at the north end of the county and south end of the county. Homes flooded from one end to the other. So it’s going to be a long recovery," said Tim Craighton.

Craighton is Okmulgee's Emergency Management Director and started calling area emergency rescue crews around 2:30 Monday morning. He said they got more rain in some places than they've had in years and it happened very quickly. He said too many people were out during the flooding driving through high water and were stranded. Craighton said he expects the water to keep rising throughout the evening. He said with the potential of more rain Tuesday, the focus is rescuing people from flooded areas.

The City of Okmulgee, Okmulgee County Emergency Management, and Oklahoma Department Emergency Management, are asking anyone impacted by the rain and flooding on Monday to report flooding and storm damages online at www.damages.ok.gov. City officials say any business, ranches, homeowners, and renters should report any damage from the storm or from the flooding.

News On 6 Storm Tracker Von Castor was tracking storms near the area and found one driver stuck due to floodwaters.

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