'We lost everything': Webbers Falls family remembers historic flood

The Arkansas River flood happened nearly five years ago and it's been hard to forget for many Oklahomans.

Several people lost their homes when flood water came spilling in. Now state lawmakers are close to securing more funding to repair the Arkansas River levee systems.

Faye Lee lives about as close as you can get to the Arkansas River in Webbers Falls.

She and her husband have lived in this spot since 2002, and yes, even during the flood of 2019.

"They told us we were going to have to get out of here, but we told them we probably wouldn't," Lee said.

When she saw the flood water coming in from afar, she figured she ought to stay in a fifth wheel with her grandson. Two months later, she went back home.

"We lost everything in the trailer, all the outbuildings outside," she said.

The flood forced her to buy a new trailer along with mostly everything inside it, except her kitchen table which she still uses.

Even today, Lee says she can't grow anything in the dirt, due to all the sludge the flood brought in.

"You can dig down in there, and get below that. But it's still there. It won't ever go," Lee said.

Lee was far from alone in Webbers Falls. In Braggs – people were trapped as the lone road to get out was flooded. Along the river in Sand Springs, people's homes were flooded waist-high and beyond.

The Senate Appropriations Committee approved $50 million in funding for repairs and improvements to the Arkansas River levee systems. State Senator Cody Rogers of Tulsa authored Senate Bill 1391. It would create a revolving fund for the Oklahoma Water Resources Board and designate the state's portion of the funds to the project, estimated at $191 million.

"Life has inconveniences, but it never worried me," Lee said.

If State Bill 1391 is signed into law, the appropriated funds would be available in fiscal year 2025.

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