Around Great Bend, residents reported rainfall amounts of anywhere from 2.5 to 6 inches on Monday. Several people reported getting about 3 inches of rain between 4:30 and 6 p.m.
Outside of the city limits, not so much.
A Great Bend Tribune employee who lives east of Barton Community College received less than an inch of rain.
Over on K-156, deputies from the Barton County Sheriff’s Office were making traffic stops as usual Monday evening.
“We didn’t have any problems at all,” Sheriff Brian Bellendir said. There were muddy roads and water over the typical low spots, but that was it. Meanwhile, the Great Bend Police Department was fielding multiple calls of stalled vehicles in town and the National Weather Service was warning about flash flooding.
There were at least nine stalled vehicles in town, including several along 10th Street and in the 1100 block of Heizer Street. Flooding was reported in the 1100 block of Washington and the 1200 block of Grant, in the 2000 block of Kansas Ave., and the 2500 block of Williams St., where someone tried to block the street with a vehicle to prevent cars from driving through high waters near his residence.
After the rain, police received a report at 9:12 p.m. of two vehicles stuck in the mud in the 300 block of 10th St.
Great Bend USD 428 Assistant Superintendent Khris Thexton and six other district employees headed to Washington School, where the courtyard tends to overflow in heavy rain. Water was coming into the school so they ran shop vacs and pumped water off the carpeting. The building was ready for school Wednesday morning.
Eastern Barton County, northern Rice County and all of Ellsworth county were placed under a flood warning Tuesday afternoon. The National Weather Service in Wichita advised an additional 2 inches of rain might be on the way. The NWS said scattered thunderstorms will affect the region again today. Locally heavy rainfall and localized flooding could occur with the strongest storms.
Those who find themselves under a slow moving thunderstorm can quickly see rainfall amounts add up, the NWS advised. “Very heavy rainfall rates of 2 inches per hour are possible.”
More rain likely this week