Tuesday marks the 19th anniversary of one of the KVOE listening area’s most significant weather disasters in recent memory.
Strong thunderstorms brought torrential rain to Lyon and Chase counties the night of Aug. 29, 2003, sending seven vehicles off the Kansas Turnpike just west of the Lyon-Chase county line. Six people were killed in the Jacob’s Creek flash flood, including five in a minivan and one person who had rescued several others trapped in their vehicles.
Following that disaster, the Turnpike Authority began improving its drainage up and down the highway. It also added flood area signage in several locations, including the Jacob’s Creek flood area, and added systems to monitor ther weather in general and water levels specifically. The drainage improvement process was already underway when another person died in a flash flood in southwest Lyon County in 2015.
