Damage Assessment Teams In Bartlesville

Friday, July 6th 2007, 5:44 pm

By: News On 6

As the flood water recede the long, hard job of cleanup begins. Damage assessment teams are in Washington County to find out how bad things really are. The News On 6â€™s Steve Berg reports on Friday the rain had finally stopped and the sun was shining in Bartlesville, but the damage along the Caney River has already been done.

The sun may be shining, but it only sheds more light on the damage done to Sandy Ainesworth Bartlesville home.

"Where do you start? That's part of our house, that's one room in our house. The den and the garage we already tore all that out,â€ flood victim Sandy Ainesworth said.

Ainesworth is still in disbelief how fast the floodwaters rose, and what they could do.

"By Sunday morning at 1:30 in the morning my house was underwater,â€ Ainesworth said. â€œI walked out in waist deep water across the front yard.â€

"We're down to just below 15 feet now, flood state if 13 feet, so we've almost got all the water back in the channel," Kary Cox Washington County Emergency Management Director said.

Cox says now they need to catalogue damage like the Ainesworthâ€™s have suffered.

"We need to get those numbers, find out how many folks have really been affected, how many homes and businesses have been affected so that we can continue to do this process of trying to quality for the FEMA disaster assistance," said Cox.

Ainesworth says her home was filled with four feet of water that was contaminated by the nearby sewage treatment plant, and she doesn't know when her house will be livable again.

"I wanna come home," said Ainesworth.

Officials warn the Caney River is still prone to flooding. They hate to say it but another heavy rain next week and they could go through the flooding disaster again.

Watch the video: Assessing Flood Damage

For more flooding information, check out our STORM ZONE web page.