Tulsa County Sheriff’s “swift water rescue team” was called to the scene in Creek County when a Cimarron Public Transit vehicle ended up stranded in rising waters in southern Creek County near 186th and 145th W. Avenue.
In the video posted to the TCSO Facebook Page, the water rescue team is speeding down what would normally be a paved street, but has now become a body of water the size of a small lake after days of off-and-on rain and flash flooding gave way to rising waters.
According to sources familiar with the situation, the driver said the water wasn’t nearly as high when she first entered the flooded area, but it was still enough to cause the her engine to stall out. She quickly noticed the water was rising, and they called for help. The Creek County Sheriff’s Department responded, and they called TCSO for the use of their swift water rescue team.
The driver and passenger were rescued and brought back to dry ground.
Creek County has had a fairly wet week, although exactly how much depends on where you were in the county. The thunderstorms over the weekend were very localized. Based on Oklahoma Mesonet observations, most of Creek County received about 1.5–3 inches of rain over the past 7 days. Some isolated pockets that were under the stronger thunderstorms likely picked up 3–5 inches, while a few spots may have seen less than an inch.
Creek County Sheriff’s Department said the recent rains and flooding have caused a measurable uptick in water rescues in the county, including another on Wednesday that involved an Amazon delivery van.
Undersheriff Joe Thompson told Sapulpa Times on Wednesday that the rash of rain storms, both in number and accumulation having kept the department busy. “It’s like we’re getting all the rain we expected for April and May at the same time, and it’s in June,” he said.
The Tulsa/Creek County area averages about 4.5–5 inches of rain during the entire month of June, which works out to roughly 1.1–1.3 inches in a typical week. Receiving 2–3 inches in one week is roughly 1.5 to 2.5 times the normal weekly rainfall for this time of year.
News On 6 was also able to catch the water rescue in action.