Thunderstorms dumped more than nine-and-a-half inches of rain on Fayette on Thursday and Friday, according to local weather stations. The storms caused widespread flash flooding when creeks and stormwater drains could not contain the extreme rainfall. The storms caused heavy damage to many roads throughout the county, which forced county commissioners to declare a State of Emergency on Friday.

Area fire departments rescued 28 people from floodwaters. Nineteen of those were rescued from their homes in low-lying areas in Franklin. A family of nine was rescued and stayed at the Silver Bell motel in Fayette.

Almost a dozen people were rescued after driving around barricades onto roadways that were closed because of flooding. Four cars were stranded in floodwaters on Highway 5 between New Franklin and Highway 40. The Glasgow Fire Department deployed boats while providing mutual aid to the Howard County Fire Protection District.

Basements flooded and roadways were washed out. Water flooded the basement at the Keller Building and entered several Fayette Public School buildings. Floodwaters entered Daly Elementary and Clark Middle School hallways and offices, along with the Daly/Clark gymnasium. Water runoff from the park collected in the CMS parking lot on Lucky Street.

The Howard County Fair was forced to cancel activities on Friday evening and all day Saturday, including the rodeo and tractor pull, due to flooded roadways and limited access to the fairgrounds. The livestock sale has been postponed. A final schedule will be printed here when it becomes available. 

Around half a dozen power outages were reported in Fayette last week, mostly due to storms that caused tree limbs to be tangled among power lines. An outage on June 17 was caused by heavy demand during excessive heat.

Another inch of rain fell on Monday, and more is forecasted throughout the week.