The weekend’s historic flooding in the region resulted in plenty of extra work for the Texas County Sheriff’s Department.
Sheriff James Sigman said he and other officers were involved in several water rescue situations directly related to the event, all caused by people trying to drive across deep, swift-moving water. There were no fatalities.
“This was a big one,” Sigman said, “and there were some people who weren’t using caution.”
One was at about 10 a.m. Saturday on Panther Creek Road at Cabool, where Elk Creek joins the Big Piney River.
A second incident happened after 6 p.m. Saturday on Highway VV near Licking, where a driver tried to make it across a low spot in the road covered by deep water. After responders hooked the vehicle up to Sigman’s truck, he pulled it out to drier ground. The Licking Fire Department assisted at the scene.
Another took place at about 7 p.m. Saturday at the Sand Shoals Bridge on the Big Piney River, where lots of water was raging over the top of the bridge surface.
“We basically just fished a car out,” Sigman said. “We got a report that people had witnessed it driving out there, and we didn’t know if anyone was in it when we got there. The car was out there bobbing around. We had a deputy swim out there and hook a rope to it, and I pulled it to the bank.
“Fortunately nobody was in it. Basically, a guy tried to drive across when it wasn’t going to work. There’s a story behind that, but at least we got the car out.”
Sigman said Texas County motorists should be aware that numerous rural roads sustained major damage, mainly in the southern end of the county.
“It seems like we have more closed roads than open roads,” he said.
Sigman said the swollen Big Piney River caused heavy damage to the Slabtown Bridge on Highway AF in north-central Texas County.
“That bridge will need close inspection before they reopen it, because they have to if water goes over the top and it was definitely over the top,” he said. “It took a pretty good jolt; something hit it so hard that the top guard rail has a big horseshoe in it.”
Many other county bridges, Sigman said, will require attention before being usable again.
“A lot of them didn’t just have debris on them, but actual trees over them,” he said. “That will need to be cut up, pushed off and cleaned up, but then there’s still running water. You cut a stump off and block the flow and you’ve created another problem.”
TCSD deputies responded to several “check well- being” requests over the weekend.
“That’s due to phone lines being down and people not being able to get to where their family members were,” Sigman said. “It turned out everyone was safe, it was just phones not working.”
This week, TCSD personnel will continue assessing damage around the county and identifying where people need the most help.
“Some of our concern is people being trapped in their houses,” Sigman said. “There are some places where getting in and out requires crossing a bridge no matter which direction you’re going.”
Sigman said with multiple flood-prone riverways to frequently deal with – like the Big Piney and Roubidoux Creek – Texas County is in dire need of its own rescue boat.
“We can’t rely on these two and three hour waits to get a boat,” he said. “I’m hoping to have a boat by next year. We’ll get one, and we’ll get the training we need.”
The relatively low amount of damage to back roads in northern Texas County was a slight relief, Sigman said.
“It’s kind of surprising,” he said, “but of course, that part of the county sits higher. You could drive a car on a lot of those roads, but with a lot of the roads in the southern end, you could make it with a truck but I wouldn’t take a car on them.
“There are a lot of things that can be done to patch the roads, but it’s going to take a long time to get them back to where they need to be.”
On one side of Sigman’s office in the Texas County Justice Center sits a cot where he spent lots of time last weekend.
“When you know you’re only going to get a couple of hours of sleep, there’s no need in going home,” he said.
Sigman is hopeful that government funding will eventually allow for Army Corps of Engineers crews to bring in heavy equipment to fix the roads.
“The townships really have their hands full, and I don’t think any of them have the loaders and things they’re going to need,” he said. “Graders aren’t going to fix everything this time.
“It’s going to be a process.”