Bartlesville Recovering From Heavy Rain, Flooding

Bartlesville is just now getting over flooding from this spring, and city leaders say this week's storms are only adding to their list of problems.
 
The city says Sooner Park is just one of the many problem areas around Bartlesville, but the city also says that many areas that got hit with floodwaters had never experienced problems like that before. 
 
Bill Cole and his wife have lived in their home for 13 years.

"This house was built in 1965," Bill Cole said. "There's never been no water in this house."

Cole says Sunday's heavy rains provided quite the surprise.

"My wife got out of bed and went down the hallway, and the rugs were wet," he said.
 
Cole says it has never been issue until now.

"I don't know what's happened! The drains collapsing; they've changed the waterway, but we've got a problem here," said Bartlesville resident Bill Cole.

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The city says there were drainage issues all around town, caused by too much rain in too little time.

"We had heavy flooding around town. It was unexpected, you know? Five to six inches of rain," said Lance Brown, Bartlesville Street Department Supervisor.

"It was more rain than what the system could handle, and that doesn't happen very often."
 
Trying to find light in the situation, Cole says he think it's all a conspiracy, happening right inside his own home.
 
"My wife's been wanting ceramic tile. I think her and the good Lord have been working together on me this last week
 
All joke aside, it's caused them a big headache this week.
 
"We've got our home halfway tore out, you know, I've got the carpets all tore out," he said.
 
And Cole worries what will happen the next time a storm moves into town.
 
"I'm scared to leave home now. What happens if we get a little bigger rain than they say, and it just floods my whole home," he said.