Ottawa County Residents Using ATVs, Boats To Get Out Of Neighborhood

About a dozen families are stranded by rising waters in the Neosho River and Grand Lake.

They live around Sycamore Cove, south of Wyandotte in Ottawa County.

"If you don't have a four-wheel drive pickup, you're not getting out and then maybe not even," Pat Scoggin said.

Scoggin is managing in his ATV for now, but he's worried that if the floodwaters don't go down soon, he won't be able to make his chemotherapy appointment.

And he's not the only one who's worried. The Ryans are using a boat to run everyday errands like getting groceries. But it's slow going by water.

Timothy Ryan has to be at work by 6 a.m. Now his already hour-long commute is about to get a lot longer.

"We're boating through it in the night with our lights and in the early morning in the dark, coming through with our lights and the boat and load the boat up go to work,” Ryan said. “Come home, and boat back across to get home."

With water up as much as 5 feet over some roads, Wyandotte's police chief says a boat really is the safest way to get around.