Residents evacuated after early-morning flooding

About a dozen Neosho residents were evacuated from their homes due to flooding Thursday morning.

The residents, who live on West Spring Street, were evacuated to Workman's gas station early this morning.

Cathy Hosler, who lives at 714 ½ West Spring St., said she was ordered to leave her home at about 7:30 a.m.

"We didn't even realize the water was getting into the house until my son got out of his bath this morning, and stepped into water," she said. "At first, we thought the toilet was backing up, but realized the water was coming in from outside.

"I refused to leave my home without my little full-blood shi-tzu dog. I thank God for Workman's Conoco."

Hosler said she was grateful to be able to stay close to her home and watch the floodwaters. Once they begin to recede, she and her two children will try to get back into their home.

"After today, I might be looking for a new place to live, somewhere with higher ground," she said.

Several streets were closed in Neosho after an overnight storm dumped nearly 5 inches of rain on the Flower Box City. Among streets closed due to high water were Spring, Brook, McCord, Young, South, Washington Avenue and Broadway.

"It came up really quick," said Tom Workman, director of parks and recreation for the city of Neosho and owner of Workman's Conoco.

Greg Hickman, Neosho fire chief, said the department had worked about 10 vehicle stall outs this morning.

"It happened right at rush hour, the time when everybody is trying to get to work or to school," Hickman said. "They cross water across the road and get stalled out."

Hickman said drivers should not try to cross water across the road, but should instead turn around and find an alternate route.

"Use common sense and stay out of high water," he said.

Hickman said while Hickory Creek was still within its banks at about 9 a.m. Thursday, other area creeks were not.

"Shoal Creek at Ritchey is out of its banks and Lime Kiln is underwater," he said.

Gary Roark, director of Newton County Emergency Management, said he has been in contact with the National Weather Service, who informed him conditions this morning were similar to the massive storm system that moved through the area in 2003.

"We've got concerns right now about Shoal Creek," Roark said. "While the rain has stopped, the runoff continues. We got quite a bit of rain east of us, and Shoal Creek is at flood stage right now."

Gregg Sweeten, director of emergency management in McDonald County and chief deputy of the McDonald County Sheriff's Department, said a number of roadways were closed, but the department hasn't had to rescue many people from stalled vehicles.

"Elk River is coming up drastically because we're getting the runoff from the rain Bella Vista got last night and all of the water Neosho got from Indian Creek," he said. "Elk is out of its banks at Pineville."

Sweeten said the rain had also heavily damaged a Little League baseball field in Pineville which was undergoing renovations for the upcoming season. As of Wednesday, volunteers had just finished removing rocks and debris from previous flooding, were preparing to install fencing, and were getting ready to pour concrete at the ball field. This morning, the field's driveway has a 5- to 6-foot deep hole, and the rocks from the driveway have washed down onto the field.

"I'll bet we put in 200 man-hours on that field," Sweeten said. "We were trying to get it ready for opening day on May 3. You just don't know whether to laugh or cry."

Neosho Daily News

Students get day off from school

With the torrential rains Thursday, students in the East Newton R-6 School District had a day off.

"We toured the roads (Thursday) morning around 4 or 5 a.m.," said Jason White, director of transportation for the East Newton School District. "It is pretty much all over the county, some places are not as bad as they were, but the low water bridges, they are flowing hard."

Two roads in particular with flooding included Old Ritchey Road and Route W, going into Ritchey, just east of Granby. Most of the students live in rural areas. White noted one particular point a curve on Ritchey.

"You don't want buses to drive in water, where you can't see the road to see what is there."

Tournament delayed

For the second straight day, rain pushed back the start of the 9th Annual Mickey Mantle Wooden Bat Classic in Commerce, Okla.

On Wednesday, both Neosho and Diamond were slated to play games in the tournament, but rain washed out the games.

A revised schedule has been posted and the opponent and times and field locations have been altered according to the tournament Web site, www.mickeymantleclassic.com.