National Guard Aid Sought in Okla. Flood Evacuations

Oklahoma authorities declared a state of emergency Sunday and asked for National Guard help as the rising Spring and Neosho rivers forced nearly 100 people from nursing homes and a mobile home park.

But the heavy downpours that soaked parts of Oklahoma, Kansas and Missouri last week were mostly over.

In Lamar, Mo., volunteers were at work with mops and buckets in Lonnie Frieden’s furniture store Sunday.

“Well, we had about 18 inches of water in the store,” Frieden said of conditions Saturday at his business on the outskirts of Lamar, a town of 4,200 people in southwestern Missouri. “But, we got most everything out before it hit,” he said.

Access to three northeastern Oklahoma communities--Miami, Wyandotte and Quapaw--was virtually cut off because at least a foot of water covered highways into the towns, with even more water on rural roads.

The Ottawa County Civil Defense agency in Miami asked for National Guard troops to help evacuate some residents who “were panicking” at the sight of water slowly surrounding their homes and businesses, director Terry Durburow said.

“These people have never seen this kind of water before,” Durburow said. “They see the water come up and they panic. They don’t know what to do, who to call or where to go.”

Water was already about eight feet above flood stage on the Neosho River and expected to rise two more feet before cresting. The Spring River at Quapaw was nearing a crest about 23 feet above flood stage, said Greg Patrick of the National Weather Service in Tulsa.

More than 15 inches of rain fell Friday night and Saturday morning in parts of Missouri as hundreds were forced to evacuate.

Since Wednesday, three deaths in Missouri have been blamed on the latest flooding. Near Boonville, in southwest Missouri, police resumed their search Sunday for a pickup that was washed off a highway.

In Iowa, Walnut Creek at Des Moines stayed within its banks despite more than three inches of rain Saturday. The stream flooded in August, following the July flood on the nearby Raccoon River that knocked out water service to 250,000 people.

Meteorologists said no more rain was expected for the next few days.

“The rain has stopped, and the sun is shining. Things are looking better,” Frieden said in Lamar.

The Missouri River continued to threaten towns along its banks in Missouri.

The Missouri-American Water Co., which supplies customers in the Joplin area, had urged customers on Saturday to stockpile water as a precaution against flooding on Shoal Creek.

But company manager Gary Trim said Sunday that the creek had started to recede and the plant was still operating.

Charles Walker, operations officer for Missouri’s State Emergency Management Agency, said Sunday that conditions were improving across the state.