Woman Drowns After Driving Through High Waters

Pottawatomie County authorities were still looking for a 49-year-old motorist who was swept away Sunday night in floodwaters.  

After as much as five inches of rain in about an hour’s time Sunday, the OHP said the woman attempted to drive her Toyota through three feet of flowing floodwaters on Fishmarket Road, a half-mile north of Highway 9.  

OHP Lt. Mike Roe said the woman called her husband on her cellphone after he car got swept off the road.  

When her husband got there, the car was pinned up against a tree next to the road.  

However, the tree gave way, while he attempted to rescue her. The Toyota and the woman were swept downstream.  

Searchers found the woman’s car, her purse, and two articles of clothing about 100 yards downstream. 

However, as of 8 p.m. Monday, they haven’t recovered her body.

“It takes less than a foot of running water to move a vehicle off the roadway,” Roe said Monday afternoon.  

Pottawatomie County Undersheriff J.T. Palmer said the search area extends about five miles along Pecan Creek, which flows underneath Highway 9.  

Palmer said they will find the woman’s body, but this may be a case where the water needs to be given more time to recede.  

Brandi Myers’ family lives in a home right across Fishmarket Road from where the woman and her car were swept away.

“It’s was horrible,” she said Monday afternoon. “I was so scared it was one of my kids.”