Heavy rains cause flash flooding in the Wichita area of Kansas, stranding motorists

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Heavy rains caused flash flooding successful the Wichita country of south-central Kansas, forcing firefighters to rescue dozens of people, including stranded motorists

WICHITA, Kan. -- Heavy rains caused flash flooding successful the Wichita country of south-central Kansas, forcing firefighters to rescue dozens of people, including stranded motorists.

Sedgwick County's exigency absorption director, Julie Stimson, said astatine a briefing Tuesday nighttime that the region had received anyplace from 1 1/2 inches to 7 inches (4 centimeters to 18 centimeters) of rainfall since Monday. She warned motorists who tally into flooded areas not to thrust astir barricades oregon exigency vehicles, and to crook astir instead.

Kansas Gov. Laura Kelly issued a catastrophe exigency declaration to alteration authorities agencies to supply assistance.

The Wichita Fire Department utilized boats to rescue respective motorists trapped successful their cars. While the h2o sometimes reached windshield height, immoderate radical inactive attempted to thrust done it.

“We person to enactment ourselves successful information with our beingness jackets and our boats to get them into a beingness overgarment and into a vessel to get them retired of the water,” Fire Capt. Lance Diffenbaugh told KSN-TV. “So there’s nary consciousness successful it if they tin conscionable crook astir and hold 10 minutes for the h2o to spell down.”

A fewer roads remained closed Wednesday morning, according to the county's interactive map.

About 30 miles (48 kilometers) east, the torrential rainfall caused the Walnut River to overflow, flooding respective streets successful Dorado and sending radical scrambling for safety.

“By the clip we got astir of the worldly retired of determination and were going to get the past fewer things, it was already up to our waist, and we were beauteous overmuch swimming to get out,” nonmigratory Michelle Yerge told KAKE-TV.

Wednesday's forecast called for adust conditions, but much storms were forecast for Thursday. Officials warned that the ungraded successful the country is saturated and adjacent an inch oregon 2 of rainfall could pb to localized flooding.