About 2,400 People Displaced By Flooding In Muskogee County

Muskogee County Emergency Management officials said preliminary numbers show about 2,400 people are out of their homes right now.

Emergency Management Director Jeff Smith estimates about 1,000 homes are impacted by the floodwaters.

With the sun shining Thursday, emergency crews and volunteers were able to get a lot more work done than other days this week.

Volunteers and the Cherokee Nation Marshals and Emergency Management worked to bring supplies into Braggs, which is still surrounded by water.

Highway 62 between Fort Gibson and Muskogee is underwater. Fort Gibson Police Chief Donnie Yarbrough said at one point, the casino in Fort Gibson had nearly three feet of water in it.

Water has made it to the roofs of some homes. Megan Kelley lives just north of the OG&E plant.

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“I don’t know if my home is gonna be saved or not because this water has been there for over a week now,” Kelley said.

She’s one of the roughly 2,400 people in Muskogee County who are displaced right now, including people in Muskogee, Fort Gibson, a few in Braggs, and nearly everyone Webbers Falls.

Kelley joined her new neighbors for lunch at the American Legion. She was not expecting to be a victim of the floodwaters, and said she had little time to prepare to leave.

“We were actually gonna donate two bags of clothing to the homeless shelter and those are clothes that we’re wearing right now because we were gonna try to give to somebody that we thought were gonna be in need,” Kelley said.

Kelley said the home she lives in now survived the 1986 flood. She was 2 years old at the time.

“This time around I think everything is gonna have to be rebuilt,” Kelley said.

At Highway 10, volunteers are on a mission to get food and medicine to Braggs. Volunteers said using the rail system wasn’t an option on Thursday.

“I’ve got friends that live in Braggs and they need supplies, we’re gonna get them there,” Fort Gibson resident Shane Frix said.

The supplies are loaded up in boxes, some labeled with the recipient’s name on them and kind words coming from people on the other side of the water.

“Just seeing the community come together and just support each other is just great,” Frix said.

The supplies heading into Braggs came from the distribution center at the old high school gym, where people in need can pick up whatever they need for as long as they need to.

The donation needs at the center are clean-up supplies, and things like shovels, gloves, trash bags. Charcoal-lined masks, and chemicals to treat mold and mildew are also needed.

You can drop those items off at the old high school gym if you’d like to help.