OKLAHOMA CITY — A steady line of slow-moving thunderstorms that battered Oklahoma in recent weeks set multiple rainfall records across the state and helped ease drought conditions.
But the saturated ground and torrential rains also came with a heavy price, including the deaths of multiple people who became trapped in their vehicles in rising floodwaters.
On Thursday, a road washed away in a rural community south of Oklahoma City, stranding about 10 families whose only way out of their homes is a mile-and-a-half walk around a washed-out pond that broke through a retaining wall.
“I’ve never wanted a Sonic cheeseburger so bad in my life, but that’s just because I can’t go and get one,” said John Teas, who was stranded with his wife and 17-year-old son at their home in Blanchard, about 30 miles (48 kilometers) south of Oklahoma City. “I’ll probably go out to my wood shop and see if I can get some work done.”
The Blanchard Fire Department received a call early Thursday morning from one of Teas’s neighbors who had rising floodwater in his home. On their way, they discovered the only road into that part of the county had completely washed away.
“The fire department went door to door,” Grady County Emergency Management Director Dale Thompson said. “They had to walk through the fields to let them know what was going on.”
Oklahoma experienced multiple rounds of thunderstorms characterized by their long, circular structure and prolonged rainfall in recent weeks, said Jennifer Thompson, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service.
“Tonight and tomorrow morning we’re concerned about another round of severe weather and potential flooding,” Thompson said Thursday.
At least seven Oklahoma cities, including capital Oklahoma City, set April rainfall records, said Oklahoma State Climatologist Gary McManus. The statewide average rainfall totaled 8.74 inches, surpassing the previous April record of 8.32 inches set in 1942, according to data kept since 1895, McManus said.
The record rainfall comes just four months after Oklahoma set an all-time rainfall record in November.
The wet weather did result in some good news: Drought conditions that covered 48% of the state dropped to a little more than 14% through April, according to the U.S. Drought Monitor. Only parts of the Oklahoma Panhandle and the far northwestern corner of the state remained in drought conditions on Thursday.