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Wichita Falls is Full of Water - And Flowing Over!

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Contributed by: Jeff and Julie Coley on 6/30/2007

(Note - Be sure to click on the photos to bring up a larger image)
On Friday June 29th, we decided to spend our evening driving around the area and taking photos of the flood. We went to Lake Arrowhead, Lake Wichita, Holiday Creek, the MPEC and the Holiday Inn. We weren't the only ones there. I have never seen so many people out and about and driving around.
First we went to Lake Arrowhead and took pictures of water in the spillway. I have never seen water near the spillway, it is usually a dry weed bed, but it now has water and with anymore rain, will fill to capacity and overflow.
We then went to Holiday Creek next to Brodie Mitsubishi where Jeff works. He spent several days watching the flood waters rise. He has been there since 1996 and has never seen the culvert fill to this capacity.
We left there and attempted to go to the MPEC center. We have to weave around roads around the area until we were able to get into the parking lot. We weren't the only ones, there were so many people looking at the overflowing banks of the Wichita River. The RV Park had been evacuated to the MPEC and water was already beginning to fill parts of the parking lot of the MPEC. Part of the AG center parking lot was full of water and the water was about a foot from a street sign.
Then we headed to the Holiday Inn on I-44. I have never seen so many people. Traffic was bumper to bumper on both sides of the highway. People were pulling off to the side of the highway and getting out of their cars to take pictures and to just look and stare at the massive amount of flooding that had occured and the poor people who were stranded at the Holiday Inn with no way to get in or out. I wanted to take photos from a different prospective so we went to Riverside Cemetery and took photos from the top of the hill looking down at the river.
Our last stop was Wichita Lake. I have never seen so many people at the lake at one time. You could hardly find a place to park at the spillway! There were families watching the white foamy water come crashing down the spillway into the ground below in what is normally a small stream that runs through that part of town. This day, it was a massive flow of white rushing foam.
Beyond the tragedy of the flood itself, one other thing that was created from this tradgedy was that it brought people together. Couples walking to see the waters, children in awe of the fanastic flow and whole families out together spending an evening and seeing something so huge that we haven't seen since 1982.
We were in the flood of 1982. We spent 5 days unable to leave the Tiffany Apartments and Red Cross provided us with food for those 5 days. I will never foget what it was like to be in a flood, pregnant and not able to walk in the nasty, stagnant flood waters. Jeff taking a boat across Weeks Park Golf course up to Funland to go to the Beer Barn to get chips and cokes for us and all of the other people who couldn't get out of the water. Someone bringing in Popeye's fried chicken that was given to us for free. That was the best meal we had eaten in days. Not able to leave our apartment, losing three cars and scared to death at the young age of 24 with no family near by. I would not wish something like this on anyone. But if I learned anything from it, it was that this town comes together during times like these and we bounce back bigger and better!
More photos added Sunday July1st

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