WATCH: Floodgates at John Redmond Reservoir control raging waters pouring into the Neosho River.
BURLINGTON Its been a few rain-free days, and Iolans arent quite as apt to cringe at the first clap of thunder.
An extraordinarily wet May bringing 16 inches of rainfall in Iola, or more than thrice the amount in a typical year put the community on high alert for flooding.
Even days in which lines of thunderstorms narrowly missed Allen County, residents such as Jerry Sigg still were worried.
Thats because of the abundance of rainfall, clogged rivers and saturated farmland feeding water about 50 miles northwest of here, into the John Redmond Reservoir.
Ive learned more about John Redmond than I ever wanted to, Jerry Sigg, owner of J-Ds Tire and Muffler, noted at the time.
He wasnt alone, as dozens of residents stayed glued to online reports detailing John Redmonds status, particularly after hearing predictions of flooding on par with 2007.
Suddenly, an entire populace became familiar with terms such as conservation pool, tainter gates and discharge rates.
And while there were locations in neighboring counties that fared much worse than Iola or Allen County last week, the overriding consensus at least in town was that Iola dodged a Mother Nature-sized bullet. (Farmland along the Neosho is another story, with some fields still underwater.)
JOHN Redmonds water levels have continued to ebb, slightly, for the past seven days. By Thursday afternoon, the reservoir was no longer considered over 100
percent full.
As of Friday morning, Redmonds water level stood at 1,067.74 feet above sea level, which still remains nearly 27 feet above normal.
The reservoirs intake, aided with the dryer weather, stands at about half what had flowed into John Redmond about a week earlier.
That, in turn, has allowed the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, which controls operations for John Redmond, to slowly close the reservoirs floodgates, which has led to (slightly) lower river levels downstream, including in Allen County.
That said, it still will take several more days for things to get back to normal, explained Stacey Reese, with the Army Corps of Engineers Public Affairs office.
We are storing flood water and making release decisions, as needed, to mitigate the impact of flooding downstream, Reece said in an email. The release decisions are based on water on the ground. Rain as well as runoff play a part in the lake levels. We have teams of highly qualified civil engineers and hydrologists monitoring the situation 24/7 and we are continuing to update our hydrology models to ensure public safety.
The gradual release, to prevent more serious flooding downstream, also helps explain why those same downstream levels may not recede as quickly as they otherwise would have.
