Ike brings flooding to county
By Bruce Wallace
Record-setting rains led to cars washing away and one death in Boone County over the weekend.
Michelle Runkle, a 21-year-old Columbia resident, and former Sturgeon High School basketball player, was washed downstream as she waded into a creek in an attempt to assist a stranded motorist.
The incident happened early Sunday morning near Clark Lane at Hominy Creek. Missouri State Water Patrol officers recovered her body about 5:30 p.m. on Sunday.
The motorist Runkle was attempting to help had driven his car into what he thought was shallow water. His was not the only incident of that nature.
The Southern Boone Fire Protection District was called to the eastern end of Englewood Road on Sunday because a car had washed into the river. However, two campers who had parked near the bridge were safe.
For the four-day period, Ashland received 6.86 inches of rain, 4.83 inches in the 24-hour period of Saturday-Sunday morning, according to KMIZ meteorologist Sharon Ray.
"We had a cool front that came down at the end of the week that caused rain on Thursday and Friday, but Hurricane Ike blew in on Saturday and with the saturated ground, that water caused plenty of problems.
Rain totals were record-setting in some areas: Jeff City had 5.35 inches; Osage Beach 3.27 inches; Columbia - Sunday daily record rain of 1.99 inches at the airport; Columbia 4.69 inches; Moberly 3.79 inches Boonville 3.5 inches; Fulton 4.5 inches. Unofficial reports from Hartsburg totaled as much as 5.25 inches of rain.
"Columbia to Jefferson City got the worst of it," Ray said. "That area got the most tropical stuff."
Ray noted that one of the causes of the flooding included the earlier rains in September which were from Hurricane Gustav.
Ray said the month-to-date totals for rain were, in most parts of the county, 10.3 inches whereas normal rainfall is 1.78 - or 8.5 inches above normal.
Year-to-date totals are 51.08 inches of rain, with normal rainfall to mid-September at 29.52 inches - or 21.5 inches above normal.
You may want to read those totals again. They are astounding by themselves, yet when you realize that if Boone County receives another three-quarters of an inch of rain, they will have more rain than fell in September of 1993, the wettest on record. For the year, the county is already the fifth wettest year on record.
Ray said that the storm should again illustrate the danger of heavy rainfall.
"I think people underestimate water," Ray said. "You hear the amounts that we have the potential for, but then everyone is surprised by the flash flooding and the force of the water carrying away cars."