Flood Victims Prepare For Possibility Of More Rain
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Flood Victims Prepare For Possibility Of More Rain
A chance for more rain on Thursday worries those already mopping up from Monday's flood.
Reporter: Cayle Thompson
Email Address: cayle.thompson@kake.com
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The rivers in Butler County have receded, giving flood-weary victims in the Wagon Wheel Ranch area a chance to start mopping up.

But some worry the threat of more rain on Thursday will just soak their homes again.

"It's not terrible, but it's enough," said homeowner Joni Farney late Wednesday. Farney and her husband will be monitoring the forecast closely on Thursday. After Monday's flood, they're now debating whether to sell the creek-side house they've called home for eleven years.

KAKE Meteorologist Blake Smith says Thursday afternoon's anticipated storms could drop as much as 2-inches of rain on already waterlogged areas.

The forecast has emergency management crews in Augusta working overtime. Wednesday, Butler County prison inmates worked to fill 20,000 sandbags with the help of a new machine.

The Environmental Bagging System can fill up to 30 sandbags a minute. Developed in Kansas City and recently deployed to North Dakota for flooding there, an EBS machine is now helping Augusta prevent a breach of the levee system holding back the Whitewater and Walnut rivers.

In Monday's flooding, water rose to within two feet of the top of a levee just west of Augusta.

"I don't think anybody really knows what how much it would take to bring it back up," Augusta public works superintendent Cy Ricker said Wednesday. "With the ground being as saturated as it is, I don't think it would take very much at all."

The National Weather Service has issued a Flash Flood Watch for Sedgwick and surrounding counties until Friday morning.

The NWS also tracks the levels of some of the state's more flood-prone rivers, such as the Cowskin Creek in West Wichita. Homeowners living near such rivers can monitor anticipated flooding by checking the Advanced Hydrologic Prediction Service. We've provided a link to the river monitoring service directly below this article.


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