Forecast rains in the next couple of days have led the National Weather service to issue a flood watch for east central, north central, and northeast Kansas through Wednesday.
Heavy rainfall from multiple rounds of showers and thunderstorms are projected through Tuesday night. Riley County Emergency Management Director Pat Collins told KMAN they are predicting to see between two and four inches of rain over the next 36 hours.
“[The National Weather Service] called last night and said it looks like the potential crest for Wildcat [Creek]’s going to be around 14 feet,” Collins said. “They said the caveat was that it’s just going to depend how fast the rain fell and where it fell — and that’s kind of always our concern.”
City of Manhattan staff are closely monitoring the water levels in Wildcat Creek and maintaining contact with Collins’ office, according to a press release. Additionally, city crews have been cleaning storm inlets around Manhattan after weekend storms produced 3 to 4 inches of rainfall locally.
Collins said the weekend rains also contributed to the potential for flooding.
“The ground is really saturated and the ponds are mostly full so if we were to get a real hard rain in the Wildcat [Creek] watershed or the Fancy Creek watershed, we’re going to see flooding downstream from those,” Collins said.
Crews are also preparing to respond if the river flow exceeds the levels currently forecast. City and county officials are encouraging residents to monitor weather forecasts and to sign up for emergency notifications from Riley County.
The post Manhattan, Riley County under flood watch appeared first on News Radio KMAN.
