2017 1867
The Weekender Saturday, July 1, 2017
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Flood of 2007 still resonates Iolans reflect on deluge By RICHARD LUKEN The Iola Register
Ten years ago this weekend Iola’s southern landscape changed forever. An already wet spring and summer led to a brutal fourday stretch in late June 2007, during which 17 inches of rain fell through a series of downpours, leading to the area’s worst flooding since 1951. The worst of the storms came June 30 when the skies opened before sunrise and storms continued unabated for more than 12 hours. By the time the rain stopped, nearly 11 inches had fallen. The rains sent the Neosho River and other nearby waterways spilling from their banks. Elm Creek floodwaters quickly enveloped several homes through the south part of town the morning of June 30; and it didn’t recede for three days.
More than 120 homes were lost. The flood also took a devastating toll on Riverside Park, after Elm Creek waters washed away a large chunk of the old elevated Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railroad corridor, filling the park with more than 8 feet of water. “We knew we were in for a disaster, but we didn’t know how bad it was going to be until the rain stopped,” noted Judy Brigham. “And it never did.” Brigham was Iola city administrator when the 2007 flood left its waterlogged mark on Iola, and much of southeast Kansas. To mark the 10-year anniversary of the flood, the Register talked with Brigham as well as Park Superintendent Berkley Kerr, Assistant City Administrator Corey Schinstock and Teresa Murphey, who was among the residents
Flooding in 2007 washed away several of these homes from Iola’s Davis Addition. This aerial photo was taken by Iolan John McRae while the floodwaters were at their highest. FILE PHOTO
Teresa Murphey and husband Ed were able to salvage their home at 312 W. Campbell Street. Below is a photo of the flooded Iola Municipal Pool from 2007. in Davis Addition who saw their homes inundated. (She and husband Ed were among the few who were able to save their homes.) “I STARTED as Iola city administrator in 2006,” Brigham recalled. “There were all kinds of things I thought I was going to do. But the flood kind of defined my job.” She and Iola’s department heads headed for City Hall that fateful June day when it became evident Iola was in for a doozy. “You could hear the constant rain, and it just wouldn’t let up,” Brigham said. “There was so much chaos in so many cities. One of our biggest troubles was convincing people we were going to be flooded.” By 7 a.m. June 30 — a Saturday — city and county officials sounded a Code Red Alert, ordering residents in south Iola to evacuate.
But the evacuation took several hours, as residents struggled to decide what to pack, what to leave behind. Others ignored the call altogether. “Nobody thinks it’s going to happen to them,” Brigham said. “You’re worried about the people living in that area, but you’re also worried about the city employees working through it, because nobody
had been through anything like this before,” she said. “Of course, there was the Flood of ’51, but none of our employees were around then. We had guys in boats shutting off gas and electric meters. We had police in boats trying to rescue people.” She recalled Iola police officer Mike Ford driving a bus See FLOOD | Page A
This goat’s milk is not b-a-a-a-d By BOB JOHNSON The Iola Register
Books are in! A project 19 years in the making came to fruition Thursday with the arrival of “The Chronicles of Allen County, Vol. III (1946-2000).” The books are available at the Register office for $49.95. To order, call (620) 365-2111 or send an email to news@iolaregister.com.
Vol. 119, No. 173 Iola, KS 75 Cents
HUMBOLDT — At first blush, Amanda Stalder, 15, appears like any other teenage girl. She is effervescent, smiles easily and is comfortable in most any setting, including her rural home south of Humboldt. But ask a question, and Amanda, as opposed to many monosyllabic teens, answers in complex sentences, occasionally taking thoughtful pause and inserting more facts, some learned on her own, others from her closeknit family. The Stalders moved to their farmstead five years ago from Pueblo, Colo., to accommodate father Gary’s job as assistant manager at
Amanda Stalder milks one of several Lamancha goats in her herd on the family farm south of Humboldt. REGISTER/BOB JOHN-
SON
Monarch Cement Co. They still own a log cabin home at Pueblo and never pass an opportunity to return for a week or two.
The family is self-sufficient. “We’re a hunting family,” Amanda said. “We seldom buy beef,” rather opt to dine on venison.
Her mother, Jennifer, finds kitchen duties a daily experience, and does other chores associated in modern minds with another era, such as making bar soap from goat’s milk or turning meat from a hog purchased at the fair into sausage. Like her mother, Amanda delights in habits of yesteryear. For her, it’s taking care of goats. In a small milk shed, Amanda milks her goats by hand twice a day. She has a milking machine, “but I’m faster by hand.” On a recent evening, Amanda headed for the shed, toting two buckets. One contained tasty pellets; the other a small stainless steel milk pail. The herd of about a dozen See GOATS | Page A6
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