Ponca City Flooding Worsens With More Rain On The Way

Already waterlogged Ponca City is bracing for more rain over the weekend and all week next week. 

Read Related: National Weather Service Warns Of Life-Threatning Flooding In Ponca City 

Ponca City has already gotten more than its fair share of flooding. Businesses have been wiped out, about a dozen residents have been displaced from their homes and more rain is on the way.

Entire roads on Ponca City’s south east side are under feet of water.

“More rain coming is not what we need,” said Ponca City resident, Chad Cunningham. 

 Cunningham has been watching the overflowing Arkansas river inch slowly closer and closer to his home. 

 “You know I could cliché it and say you know it’ll never happen to me and all that stuff but it’s different when is happening to you and your property. It’s going to affect your family personally,“ said Cunningham. 

A few miles away, folks at the ironically named Rainmaker Sprinkler Company want the rain to stop. Their building is just yards from the flood waters. 

“When I bought the property they asked if I wanted flood insurance. I said it never floods here it’s not going to flood. But man this beats anything I’ve ever seen,” said David Vanbuskirk from Rainmaker Sprinkler Company. 

Right now, all the city can do is hope for the best but brace for the worst. 

“This is, you’re just standing waiting. So it’s a waiting game till the water recedes. And that’ll be weeks from now,“ said Ponca City City Manager. “We have our own electric system here so one of the big concerns is maintaining power. So we’re down one substation already. We were down one after Friday nights storm we brought it back up. We have another one that’s surrounded by water.“

Five of the city’s water wells have flooded, and there is no telling how bad the roads will be when the waters finally recede. 

“Nothing you can do nothing you can do you can I just wondered what you did wrong,“ said Cunningham.