After years of battling severe droughts, Beckham County is on track to have one of its wettest springs and summers since 2017.
Elk City City Manager Tom Ivester notes that 2017 had the most significant floods in nearly one hundred years, but that area drainage is still quite a ways from breaching those levels.
“Right now, we still have two to three left before we have to be concerned about it becoming that,” Ivester advised. “We are keeping an eye every day, multiple times a day, but our citizens don’t have to be concerned just yet that we are to that point. We will definitely keep them advised if we start getting close to that.”
However, Ivester said that the heavy storms have not been without some havoc.
Both Friday and Saturday nights, near monsoon level downpours bombarded Beckham County.
“Both nights we recorded winds up to 70 miles per hour,” he said.
The result was countless tree limbs in roadways, many blocking the roads.
“Large trees, some thirty and forty years old, were completely uprooted,” Ivester stated.
City crews led by Tim Bagby and Frank Hufford were out each night at 3 am to begin to assess the damage and move debris from the road. During the daytime, they would then focus on branches in alleys.
After all, trash trucks must still run, especially with a large amount of storm debris likely to be filling dumpsters.
For that reason, the City has made the city landfill free for trees and storm debris until Friday.
During the weekend, the landfill was opened for extended hours.
Walmart sustained damage to one of its doors but remained open for business.
Sayre City Manager Guy Hylton said Sayre only sustained mild damage but still had storm debris.
Sayre National Golf Course was briefly closed. The annual Christmas in July at Foss Lake was also canceled.
Several area residents were without electricity briefly, but all had electricity restored on Sunday.
Ivester said cities to the east weren’t as lucky.
Next week high temperatures and humidity will lead to dangerous heat indexes.
Ivester urged citizens to work on their debris early in the morning and evening and help neighbors.
Sayre Golf Course.
