Rainy weather causes minor problems

This large tree near the Osage Prairie YMCA was uprooted during the week's storms. It and others on the grounds have been cleared from the roadway, but continued rain has slowed removal efforts. Photo by Rusty Murry/Daily Mail.

Nevada Daily Mail

Rainy and sometimes severe weather during the past week has caused some problems for the residents of Nevada as well as those living in the outlying areas of the county. According to the National Weather Service office in Springfield, the entire region is well ahead of rainfall totals for the year.

Meteorologist Doug Cramer said the yearly rainfall total for the Joplin area is 6.51 inches over normal and the Springfield area is more than 10 inches over normal. The Vernon County totals fall somewhere near those of Joplin with most of the excess falling in the last week. Just this month there have been 6.86 inches of rainfall recorded at the Nevada water plant recording station, according to meteorologist Larry Dooley.

This is just the kind of situation that can be dangerous and encountered on nearly any country road. A roadway covered with water that gives no indication how deep it is or how it's moving is very dangerous. Emergency services personnel caution drivers to never enter water over a roadway. Even if it doesn't appear to be deep or swift there can be a washout under the surface. Just a few feet to the left, out of frame, the turbulent Marmaton River is creating this hazardous situation on Minnie Ball Road northwest of Nevada. Photo by Rusty Murry/Daily Mail.

Sometimes heavy rain and high winds have created some problems locally. All of the local creeks and rivers have gone out of their banks and the ground is saturated. Tuesday night and Wednesday morning saw especially heavy rains and high winds move through the county and city that left flash flooding, uprooted trees, downed limbs and power outages in its wake.

Cramer said some of the storms were "a little on the strong side," but flooding was the "main hazard" with the weather system that has created the problems. He also said to expect more rain in the coming days. There is a varying chance of rain through most of next week; sometimes a 40 percent chance; sometimes a 20 percent chance of more moisture.

Local emergency services have not experienced a lot of problems associated with this weather. And when they have, they have worked together to handle the problems. Nevada Police Chief Graham Burnley said his department and others tried to plan ahead. When the water got over I-49 and U.S. 54 Highway, a plan was already in place to route traffic away from the problem areas.

Traffic on North Clay Street in Nevada was closed off on Friday because of this large limb which has fallen and gotten caught up in the power lines overhead. It was one of several limbs down in the area of Clay and Cleveland streets, but most had been cleared from the roadway by the time this photo was taken. Photo by Rusty Murry/Daily Mail.

Burnley said he coordinated a plan with the Vernon County Sheriff's office and the Missouri State Highway Patrol to handle the traffic. He also said he had been in touch with the local American Red Cross and the Franklin P. Norman City/County Community Center was placed on standby a couple of times in case travelers or others needed emergency shelter, but it was never needed. Burnley said most of the water fell as fast as it rose.

According to Sheriff Jason Mosher, the county has had some of the same problems. Roads covered with moving water were the main concern. Mosher said they had received several calls from people needing to be rerouted around a water covered roadway. Mosher said there have been some wash outs on some of the county roads. He mentioned one in particular where the gravel had been washed away and left only big rocks. He said the area was so rough it gashed a tire on a deputy's cruiser. Both law enforcement officials want to remind drivers not to drive through water over the road.

Nevada Fire Chief Bill Thornton said it only takes an inch of moving water to move a vehicle, and that he was glad to see that "people are staying out of the water." Thornton said his department and others answered one water call north of the city on Wednesday. A pickup truck was discovered submerged in the water, but no one was in it. There were no license plates on the truck and no registration in it. It's still unclear where the truck came from and who it belongs to.

Washed out roads may be more of a problem once the water recedes. According to Vernon County Emergency Management Director Dennis Kimrey, there hasn't been a lot of damage reported with this storm system, but with the continuing rain it is hard to get out and check things. Kimrey said he expects there has been some damage to township roads but the extent of that won't be known for a few days.

Some of the storm damage was obvious. After the storm went through Tuesday night, there were a lot of limbs down in town and they took some power lines and other utilities down with them. The power, phone system and Internet service were out in the courthouse until about noon Wednesday and other KCP&L customers experienced outages at different times during the week. According to the company's PowerWatch website at, http://www.kcpl.com/-kcmaps/frameset_menus.htm, all power has been restored to more than 7,000 area customers.