Heavy rains wreak havoc on streets, roads
Staff writer
Heavy rain last week sent water over streets and roadways.
Emergency manager Marcy Hostetler said Marion was hit by the heaviest rain in a storm system that passed through the center of the state Friday morning.
Marion residents reported 4½ to 5 inches of rain in their rain gauges.
Workers took a backhoe and other heavy equipment to Batt Industrial Park to create a channel for water to drain not to the west where most surface water drains, but to the east, where it crossed Eisenhower/Timber Rd.
City administrator Brian Wells said employees also cleared portions of streets to make sure water could drain.
“By noon they were pretty much done with drainage,” Wells said.
Wells said the city building had water in the basement Friday.
In other places, water ran over roadways, depositing gravel on pavement.
Marion County Park and Lake’s low-water bridge and emergency spillway were flooded. Ditches were filled to the top, and ponds gathered in fields and pastures.
The county emergency management department announced at 9 a.m. that several roads in the county and Marion were closed because of flooding and encouraged people to take different routes instead of
driving through water.
Flooded roads included 190th Rd. between Remington Rd. and Quail Creek Rd. and between Limestone Rd. and Nighthawk Rd.; Upland Rd. from the county lake to K-256; Eisenhower St. / Timber Rd. in Marion from Marion’s ball fields to US-56.
Also, Quail Rd. from 190th Rd. to 180th Rds.; Clover Rd. from K-150 to 170th Rd.; Cedar St. south of US-56 next to Prairieland Partners; Lakeshore Dr. at the east end of the county lake; and low spots on K-256 between US-77 and Marion.
By 4 p.m. Friday, most roads were open. Still closed until 6 p.m. were a bridge on Goldenrod Rd. north of 290th Rd., Lakeshore Dr., and Clover Rd. from K-150 to 170th Rd.