Heavy rain brings floods

HARRISBURG - Heavy rains and already accumulated precipitation resulted in flooding in Saline County Saturday night, though pre-emptive work helped make flooding temporary.

In Harrisburg, which has had a long history of flooding since the town's inception, city workers removed debris that would clog pumps and screens ahead of rains last week. Then, when early rains started dumping excess water, the city already was pumping water outside of its flood levy, Mayor John McPeek said.

"Saturday day night, the rain came down really hard and some streets were flooded, but it was just flash flooding," McPeek said. "It was gone pretty quickly. We started pumping water on Wednesday, and I think cleaning out everything really good helped. We pumped all night (Sunday) night because there was a chance we would have more rain. I'm super proud of the way the city handled the whole thing. I also want to tell Harrisburg citizens who went out and cleaned up trash in their neighborhoods this weekend thank you, too."

Several Harrisburg residents picked up litter deposited by the brief flash flooding Saturday night.

While water over streets in Harrisburg is gone, some county roads may be closed for several days.

It is unclear when backwaters may start rising, which may cause flooding in other spots. On Monday morning, some Saline County roads that were dry on Sunday were covered with water.

Saline County Engineer Jeff Jones said roads where waterways are influenced by the Ohio River, including Whitesville, Rocky Branch and Horshoe roads, may be covered with water and remain so for several days. "The Ohio is supposed to crest on Sunday, and it may go down slowly, so some of those roads may remain under water through the middle of next week," Jones said.