Be safe in flooding, sharing damage photos; outages

(KOAM) - It's going to continue being a long night of storms. There have been several tornado warnings already in some of KOAM's southeast Kansas viewing areas.

The KOAM SkyWatch team says severe storms will continue into the night for the entire viewing area: southeast Kansas, southwest Missouri and northeast Oklahoma. There will also be flash flood warnings as tornado watches continue.

Chief Meteorologist Doug Heady and Meteorologist Lindsey Gaffney are going live On Air as necessary to keep you safe and will continue streaming on the KOAM News Now YouTube channel.

Messages from Agencies

There are agencies reporting localized flooding and reminding people to use caution while driving and don't enter flood waters.

Chanute Dispatch around 11:15 p.m.: "There is significant flooding across Chanute. If you see standing water don't drive through it. We strongly advise citizens to stay home."

Chanute Fire Department posts, "Victory Rd, just south of K39 is currently closed due to low hanging power lines across the roadway." That was about 9:30 p.m.

In Fort Scott around 10:45 p.m., crews were out keeping folks from driving through flooded streets. Some areas they're asking people to not travel until at least daylight.

"Attention: we have several emergency personnel out working on directing traffic away from flooded streets and areas. With the 5” of rain we have received this evening to go with the 4” we got yesterday and Thursday it is hard for the water to go anywhere. Once it stops raining the water will go down in most areas but unfortunately it does not look like the rain is going to stop for the next several hours. Please do not go out unless you have to. It is not safe for you, our personnel, or your vehicle. We will continue doing what we need to do make everyone safe. Be careful tonight and check on your neighbor."

"Please stay away from the 3rd underpass area until daylight. Several inches of water in this area. Also water over the bypass in between Briggs and Bourbon County Cars. Emergency personnel are manning this area until water goes down."

In Neosho County,

"Numerous county roads and highways are experiencing standing water and localized flooding. Please use caution while driving and don’t enter flood waters." - Neosho County Sheriff's Office

Woodson County Sheriff's Office 6:00 pm alerted residents, "If you are out (which we don’t recommend) and you see free standing water in the roadway remember to turn around don’t drown."

Share Damage Photos - Report Damage

Safety should be first, but if you have a photo of storm damage, you can share it by:

• Emailing it to news@koamnewsnow.com
• Sharing it to the pinned photo post on the KOAM News Now Facebook page
• Share it through the FREE KOAM News and Weather mobile apps
• Weather App: https://qrco.de/bbxVFH
• News App: https://qrco.de/bbxdH3

Outages

There are reports of outages from southeast Kansas of Neodesha through Fort Scott and a few into the southwest Missouri area of Nevada.

Here are some outage map resources:

• Association of Missouri Electric Cooperatives: https://outages.amec.org/outages/maps
• Empire – Liberty: https://www.empiredistrict.com/Outages/OutageMap
• Evergy: https://outagemap.evergy.com/
• Heartland Rural Electric Cooperative: https://www.heartland-rec.com/outage-center
• State of Oklahoma: https://poweroutage.us/area/state/oklahoma

KOAM will continue to bring updates as the storms pass through the area. Reports of damage will come as the storms move through. Be safe!

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