Minonk area flooded after heavy rainfall

Thursday, April 18, 2013 - Posted 11:32:40 AM

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The Minonk area was inundated with rain starting Wednesday afternoon.  The rain lasted all night and is tapering off on Thursday morning.  More rain is forecast for the area until Thursday evening although the rainfall is not anticipated to be as heavy. As of Thursday morning, the Minonk area had almost 4.5 inches of rain in less than 24 hours.

The rain comes after almost 3 inches of rain soaked the area last weekend which resulted in flooding conditions.  The farmers in the area will probably have to wait until May before the ground is dry enough for planting.  This is a sharp contrast to last year when almost all of the corn crop was planted due to an unusually early warm spell.

Below are pictures of the flooding conditions that occurred in the Minonk area.  Although the City of Minonk installed a new storm sewer system last year, the rainfall was still too much to handle for the system.  If it were not for the expanded storm sewer system the flooding would have been much worse.  One sign of the storm sewer's effectiveness is that the corner of Locust and Fourth was flooded again but the water drained away much faster than before.



Water runs over West First street looking west with the Builta addition to the left.



This is the back yard of Mrs. Ray Oltman's home at the corner of Third and Walnut streets.



This is pond in a field behind West Fourth Street that regularly forms after a big rainfall.



This is another pond that regularly occurs after a big rainfall located at the corner of Eighth and Walnut streets.  Prior to the installation of the new storm sewer system put in last year this area would have been much larger and would have surrounded the house on the left with water on both sides.



Water runs across the road southwest of Minonk.  Cornstalks washed from the fields line the country roads.



This road southwest of Minonk is closed due to the overrunning of the banks from Crow Creek.



This is the front yard of Dave Uphoff's residence southwest of Minonk.  Dave does not recall seeing this much water in his front yard.




This is the back yard of Jennifer Murrah at 615 West Fifth Street.