Emergency responders performed multiple water rescues during storms Monday night
- Nathaniel Smith | Editor-in-Chief
- 3 hours ago
- 3 min read
On the evening of April 27 and into the early morning hours of April 28, Washington County, as well as Southern Indiana and the Louisville area as a whole, experiences torrential downpours, and many experienced issues related to flash flooding. Several water rescues were performed in our community throughout the course of the evening and this morning. We spoke with Washington County Emergency Management Director Deni Stempowski, as well as Salem Fire Assistant Chief Max Gamble about the events that unfolded due to high water.
“As of this morning (April 28), we have nine roads still closed,” said Stempowski. “Salem and Little York got about four to four and one half inches of rain, and Salem got approximately four inches as well. The southern portion of the county received about two and one half inches of rain, but there was no real flooding south of Salem. We have another round of rain arriving tonight, but no severe storms will be accompanying it… We had three vehicle rescues that needed to be performed, as well as two residences that needed to be evacuated… Thank you to the DNR, police and fire rescue for their work last night and this morning. Everybody pulled together and did a great job to get the roads cleared.”
Assistant Fire Chief Gamble described the rescues and evacuations in detail.
“The city police department was responding to multiple calls of trees down, so I got out to help them out,” began Gamble. “One of the city officers called in that the water had risen across Market Street at the Fairgrounds. The street department responded to put up barricades and noticed that there were cars at 601 and 603 Market Street with headlights on, and it looked like the cars were moving. They didn’t know if there were people in them attempting to drive them out or if something else was going on, so they called me directly along with Fire Chief Mark Day. We responded down there with the city PD and the street department.”
“I got suited up and was able to make it out to the trailers,” Gamble continued. “I was able to check two out of the three cars and determined that they were empty. I was unable to check the third vehicle due to the height and strength of the water around it, but I could pretty well tell that it was also empty. I was also unable to get to the trailer that sits more toward the west. I was able to get to the one toward the east, and I woke up the residents. There were two adults and two children. They requested to be removed from the area because the water was still rising at the time. We were able to call the neighbor, and he requested to be removed as well. So, we called the DNR and requested their airboat. They were actually already in the area at the time because they were assisting another water rescue in Little York. They brought their boat in, and we were able to get everybody loaded up and brought to dry ground, so to speak… The houses up there are built on an elevated plain, so they were both safe from the floodwater. However, the vehicles completely succumbed to the floodwater. One of the vehicles was lifted up, carried by the water, and then came to a rest with its rear end sitting on top of another vehicle.”
Gamble then explained that the other two water rescue incidents, in Gibson and Monroe Townships, involved individuals driving into floodwater and becoming stranded. He added that no injuries occurred throughout last night’s events.
The Washington County Times would like to extend a big “thank you” to all of our emergency responders and city and county maintenance employees that answer the call when people are in need, no matter if it’s morning, noon or the middle of the night. We are certainly grateful for your service to our community.
