9/12/2008

Heavy rains blanketed parts of central and northwest Kansas Friday morning. The National Weather Service forecast calls for up to a 50 percent chance of continuing showers and thunderstorms through Saturday night.

Rodney Job, Lincoln County Emergency Management director, reported some areas in the western part of the county received as much as 3 inches of rain overnight. He said the Saline River is up about four feet from its normal stream flow of about 15 feet.

So far there have been no reports of flooding, “but if it continues like it is, we will be concerned with more water rising. We will be monitoring it really closely," Job said.

Rain amounts ranged from 3.5 inches in Cloud County to about an inch near Clay Center, emergency management directors in those counties said. The Journal’s weather station recorded 1.9 inches as of Friday morning. Some streets in Salina were showing slight flooding as the rain dissipated, but emergency management director Bryan Armstrong said he did not expect there to be any severe flooding due to the storm.

“It’s been fairly light and it can soak in,” he said.