Mayes County Flooding Prompts Water Rescue, Damages Homes

Heavy rains packed a punch in Mayes County. Pryor saw 6 1/2 inches and flooding in typical areas. But Salina and Locust Grove was hit the hardest with 11 inches of rainfall.

Jeff Fielder is cleaning up his flooded house. A creek flows behind his house, but once it started raining, the culvert clogged with debris.

"I opened the door and it started coming in, started coming underneath the walls. It just kind of spread fast. There wasn't really anything you could do, just pick stuff up," Fielder said.

Mayes County Emergency Management, county commissioners and the fire department stacked sandbags around several homes to keep the water out.

High water also threatened Fielder's neighbors. Leroy Monk jumped in his track hoe to clear the debris damming the creek.

"It helped for a little while. I went back in and it was about a foot deep here in the drive way," Monk said.

Monk says he has been trying to sell the heavy equipment, he's rethinking that decision.

"Man, I don't know what we would have done, probably found my house in a lake somewhere," he said.

"We have our typical areas that do flood. We've had areas that have flooded that normally don't. It's just because of the high volume of water that we've seen," said Mike Dunham with Mayes County of Emergency Management.

Emergency Management says they had to shut down so many roads, they ran out of road closure signs.

A woman drowned here in 2009 when her car was swept away by floodwaters. It's a sobering reminder that Sooner State storms happen fast and furiously.

"We need it. I was thankful for the rain but not this much," Monk said.

Mayes County Emergency Management says they had two water rescues after drivers drove into flooded roadways. They have opened a few roads but several are still closed.