First Responders Rescue Residents as Major Flood Recedes

Just a block from Lost Creek, which runs through the center of Seneca, water filled Patricia Cughron's basement "all the way up to the kitchen," destroying her furnace and hot water heater. She spoke about the emotional toll of the flood, especially after a 2016 marked by personal loss.

"We were hoping this year would be better," she said.

She got a boost from her next-door neighbor, Cheryl Brodie, who helped clean mud and water out of her flooded sedan.

"Whatever you do, don't turn it on," Brodie advised. "The engine needs to dry."

While Cughron took shelter with her son on Saturday night on the second floor of their home, Brodie hunkered down in a Motel 8 in Joplin. When a rescue team knocked on her door, she and her husband took a pass, hoping to stick it out. They gave in when furniture started floating by their front door.

"I've never seen such wild water," said Brodie, 50. "I've never experienced anything like that in my life."

Businesses and homes near Cherokee Avenue and along Lost Creek were among the most heavily affected. The waters had mostly receded by Sunday afternoon, leaving behind only debris and piles of gravel in yards and on roads.

Brian Berg, 26, reckons some of the stones come from his driveway. He showed up with his 10-year-old daughter, a pair of shovels and a pickup truck to bring some of the gravel back where it came from, and to do a good deed for his hometown.

"It helps people out," he said. "I've seen a lot of flat tires on this type of gravel."

By Sunday afternoon, sidewalks along Cherokee Avenue were dotted with soaked carpet discarded by business owners in the early stages of their cleanup effort.

"Right now we're trying to figure out where to start," said Sheila Whitehead, 43, co-owner of 24-Hour Tan and Tone. Several inches of water flooded the business, but Whitehead didn't yet know if the exercise machines were destroyed. They were not insured.

A few doors down, the Campbell-Biddlecombe Funeral Home has stood on Cherokee Avenue for 60 years, and its owner says he won't let funeral services be derailed by the flooding that destroyed parts of its chapel. Michael Steele plans to hold a service on Tuesday at an area church, and he hopes to have the chapel operational again within two weeks. He estimated the damage at more than $20,000 but said shutting down isn't an option.

"It's going to be hard, but we'll do what we have to do," he said.

Water rescues continued on Sunday evening as first responders pulled people from standing water near Shoal Creek, where major flooding continued. Charla Geller, emergency manager for Newton County, said no deaths or major injuries had been reported in the area. She said some level of flooding had affected roughly 20 homes in Granby, 80 in Neosho and 200 in Seneca as of Sunday evening.

Emergency workers continued to move from house to house in flooded areas, checking to make sure all residents made it to safety.

"This event is not over," Geller said.

The wide extent of the damage--severe flooding and heavy rainfall continued Sunday on the east side of Missouri, and a statewide emergency was declared--means victims of the flood could receive help from the Federal Emergency Management Agency. FEMA assistance will kick in if uninsured losses around the state add up to $8.4 million.

"I would not be surprised...from the damage that we've seen," Geller said.

Jim Cummins, superintendent of Seneca schools, said he didn't know of any students who were hurt in the floods. But he said many students and staff members will be involved in the cleanup effort Monday--one reason the schools will close.

The district will be closed Monday also to allow the sewer system time to clear and give crews an extra day to clean up Seneca Elementary School, where several inches of water entered some classrooms.

"We have some water and sewer issues in the city. We don't want to get 1,400 students in tomorrow and not be able to have clean water and the ability for them to use the restroom," Cummins said.

The district's maintenance buildings were hit harder than the schools. Cummins says the damage will likely reach tens of thousands of dollars.

The district is insured for that damage, but many residents affected by the flood are not.

Eric Lofland, a Seneca-based agent at Tri-State Insurance, says few of his clients carry flood insurance. It's too expensive for people who live in flood-prone areas, and seemingly unnecessary for those whose homes are only threatened by historically high waters of the kind seen in Newton County over the weekend, he said. Of Lofland's 900 home insurance clients in Southwest Missouri and Oklahoma, only 6 percent carry flood insurance.

He was at work on Sunday, cleaning carpet that was soaked through by the flood. He has flood insurance, but only because his mortgage requires it.

Meanwhile, the water was receding in Anderson, which saw its largest flood in decades on Saturday.

Janelle Stout, 19, was reunited with her brother and great-grandfather on Saturday night after they were pulled from their home in a boat by first responders. But she was left to worry overnight about her grandfather, who elected to stay with the family house.

He made it through unscathed, and by morning the water went the same way it came.

"Everything is just muddy with big ponds here and there," she said.

Just north of Carthage, the community of Kendricktown also experienced heavy flooding.

Early on Sunday afternoon, Tim Snethen flicked his cigarette into the floodwaters and picked up his phone.

"It went back down," he said.

On the other end of the line, his father asked if he had heard about flooding in Springfield, 50 miles upstream. Would Kendricktown flood again?

"Time will tell," he said as they ended the call.

Although the waters rose a foot above the floor in his home, most of the family's possessions were in storage by the time the Spring River took over this small settlement of trailer homes and auto repair shops.

Snethen, 34, fought flooding in 2007, 2008 and 2015, and he learned to start moving things as soon as the first warning comes in. He started packing on Friday and thought he wouldn't even have to get wet, but they forgot the dishwasher. He waded through turbid, knee-deep water to get it.

All of Snethen's neighbors joined him in evacuating, but he was one of the lucky ones. The river crested at 18.44 feet around midnight on Saturday, the third-highest level on record. This was "moderate" flooding by National Weather Service standards, but some homes nearer to the river were inundated with several feet of water. Not all of Snethen's neighbors had flood insurance.

But with the river already a foot below its crest, Snethen felt his family had weathered the storm. They won't move--no one has ever accepted his offer to sell his home and auto repair business--and he has begun to see the floods as an annoyance to be put up with.

"What did we lose here, besides the time from moving?" he asked.

It was noon on Sunday, the day after the flood, and his 6-year-old daughter was already asking what color she could repaint her room.

As of Sunday night, flood warnings remained in effect for all counties in Southwest Missouri, Southeast Kansas and Northeast Oklahoma. The National Weather Service station in Springfield said those warnings will extend into Monday and perhaps longer.

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