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| Rain floods Graham Lumber |
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| Written by Shelley Gulley | |
| Wednesday, 28 July 2010 | |
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By: Shelley Gulley Anywhere from 6 to 8 inches of rain fell and gathered in Northern Kentucky Tuesday night. The excessive rain resulted in flooding along with damaged homes, businesses, roads, bridges and power outages. While nearby counties Lewis and Mason have been declared in a state of emergency, Fleming County did not receive enough damage for the same declaration. “You have a threshold of damage you have to have to declare a state of emergency; we were spared a little bit and hit less than Lewis County and Mason County were. Thankfully, there was not a whole lot of damage done residentially, most of our damage was done to the roadways,” Judge Executive Larry Foxworthy said. Although the county was not in a state of emergency many businesses and families were left with treacherous conditions on or near their property. “We had three or four households stranded in different areas of the county because of high water and downed trees,” Dwayne Price, emergency management director, said, “and we used the rescue boat on all of those calls.” Price said there was very little property damage reported and that what was reported was minor. “We have six to eight county roads closed and two state roads, including Kentucky 57, Kentucky 1013, Parkersburg Road and Carpenter Road, which were completely submerged,” Price said. The bridge on Kentucky Highway 57 was closed by the Kentucky Department of Transportation until the water receded and a thorough inspection was made. “We needed to get underneath the bridge to inspect the damage. Once the water receded we were able to do that, but we had to close the bridge until then because we didn’t know the status of the structure or the pavement,” said Allen Blair, Kentucky Department of Transportation District 9 Public Information Officer. Pavement was ripped up on Highway 57 on the Lewis and Fleming County line. The rushing water literally buckled the pavement, crumbling it into many pieces making the bridge impassable. “We were able to get a good look at the bridge and assess the damage in the morning. We were able to get the pavement into passable shape. We reopened the bridge noon Thursday by removing the broken pavement and patching the bridge with asphalt patch. Until we can permanently repair the bridge we would like to remind travelers to be safe because it may be rough but it’s in good shape until we can permanently repair it. Our goal is to open the roadways as quickly and safely as possible,” Blair said. During the peak of the storm Fleming-Mason Energy had 639 reported outages in Fleming County alone, according to Joni Hazelrigg, CSO. By the time the rain ended, Fleming Creek had risen over nine feet allowing water to reach the Graham Lumber Company 50 yards away. Graham Lumber was the only reported business in Fleming County to receive damage. The lumber yard had storage trailers, delivery vehicles and wood inventory swept into the Maddox Pike Bridge by the swollen waters of Fleming Creek. Woody Graham, Owner of Graham Lumber, watched Fleming Creek all day Tuesday until it reached the bank around 9 p.m. As the water began to recede, he began to relax, however, another storm hit soon after the first. “A total of 6 inches hit here and in Lewis County they’re saying they got as much as 9 inches,” Graham said. “Of course, those creeks feed this direction, so it got pretty strong here.” The rising waters left the lumber yard a shambles. “It got into our lumber sheds. We had a lot of inventory damaged there,” Graham said. “Several of the cargo containers were damaged. I’ve got a couple of my delivery trucks damaged as well as about four or five of my delivery trailers.” Many of the cargo containers were swept into the rushing water and up against the Maddox Pike Bridge. Each container weighs over four tons empty. “You take the force of that water to move something that’s over 8,000 pounds and that’s pretty strong current,” Graham added. Graham said it’s the worst flooding he’s seen in the area and cleanup will take several days. “I’ve got all my workers here and I think we can handle it, but everybody’s been really supportive -- right down to my banker showing up and saying, “Hey, whatever you need,’” Graham said. Nearby on Route 57 Sam White watched the water rise to the highest he had seen in his lifetime. “I’m 49 years old and our property borders the North fork, I’ve lived here for 48 years and my mother has lived here her whole life and this is the biggest flood in our memory,” he said. White said the water took out some fences but that he was fortunate enough to not lose any livestock. White marveled at the amount of rain. “Our gauges held 5 inches and were overflowing but I had a 5 gallon bucket sitting outside that held 8 inches. Then as water was receding Wednesday we got another half inch, so we got an easy 8 inches,” he said, “It’s just a lot of water, that’s all I can say.” An estimated clean up time of 10 to 14 days has been given by Foxworthy. “We still have some roads closed, I can’t tell if they will still be closed when you go to press, but it’s a good bet,” Blair said. |
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