Flooding Leaves Unseen Obstacles
By Sara Plummer, Tulsa World, Okla.
Mar. 31–WYANDOTTE — It took Terry Jarboe a few tries to get his boat into the water Friday from Twin Rivers State Park boat ramp, which was mostly under water.
As he was backing his truck and boat trailer into Grand Lake, his boat began scraping something he could not see under the water, so he pulled up and tried again.
It is not surprising that boaters are running into obstacles. Grand Lake, about 100 miles northeast of Tulsa, is still about 5 feet above normal after heavy rains caused area lakes, rivers and streams to flood almost two weeks ago.
“When it’s high, it’s hard to let your boat out. Right now, the boat deck is gone,” said Jarboe, who drove 2-1/2 hours from Olathe, Kan., to fish at Grand Lake.
Justin Alberty, Grand River Dam Authority communications director, said Grand Lake crested March 21 at 10 feet above normal.
The rains came during an inopportune time, Alberty said.
“It hurt us a little. It was a tough break that it happened during spring break,” he said.
Jarboe said his brother still went fishing at Grand Lake the weekend it crested.
“Last weekend it covered the parking
lot,” he said. “We’ve camped here when it’s been up to the picnic tables.”
Mike Fox and John Warren made their annual fishing trip Friday to Grand Lake from Omaha, Neb.
“We’ve never seen it this high be fore,” Fox said.
Donald Dixon, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers lead ranger at Lake Tenkiller, said people should be careful because items such as picnic tables, cookers and tree stumps can be under water and damage boats.
“I know there are some fishermen who know this lake and will take a chance,” Dixon said.
Lake Tenkiller, about 70 miles southeast of Tulsa, is more than 10 feet above normal with half of the campsites equipped with electricity closed.
Dixon said it may be mid-April or May before some of those sites are open.
“We still had a large number of campers (spring break) weekend,” he said.
Amanda Wiley, park naturalist at Bernice State Park on the north shore of Grand Lake, said the park closed March 20 when waters started to rise, and it reopened March 23. All the recreation al vehicle sites equipped with electricity were turned off, and electric outlets that were under water will have to be replaced.
All of Fort Gibson Lake’s parks and boat ramps are closed, and the lake is still 14 feet above normal, said Tom Heathcock, the lake’s lead ranger.
Heathcock said the lake, about 40 miles southeast of Tulsa, is receding about a foot every 36 hours.
When the water started to rise, park officials had to move people out of campsites, he said. Heathcock said he and his staff will begin assessing the parks Monday.
“We may be keeping the parks closed during cleanup,” he said. “We were in good shape prior to when the flood came. We hope we didn’t get a lot of debris.”
Alberty said there is a lot of tree debris in Grand Lake because of the flooding, some of which is from the December ice storm.
Dixon said area lakes should be back to normal soon, but it all depends on the amount of rainfall in April and May.
“Those are the rainy months. If March is any indication, it’s going to be rough,” he said.
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Sara Plummer 581-8465 sara.plummer@tulsaworld.com
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