For the first time in its history, Brown County State Park was closed for almost a week after flash flooding affected the park’s main water supply.
A video of Ogle Lake overflowing its banks the weekend of June 15 spread far and wide on Facebook. Ogle Lake is the park’s water supply, providing water to the campgrounds, the Abe Martin Lodge, drinking fountains and restrooms, said Ginger Murphy, deputy director for stewardship for Indiana State Parks.
The park’s water treatment facility is less than 10 years old. “There’s normally sediment that comes into the lake when it rains, but it’s not a gully washer of rain with multiple inches,” Murphy said last week.
The park closed the afternoon of June 17. Weekend park activities, like the live raptor program, were moved to the Brown County Visitors Center. The state park reopened for limited daytime activities, like fishing and picnicking, on Monday and Tuesday, but guests were encouraged to bring their own drinking water. All pools, modern restrooms and drinking fountains were closed.
[sc:text-divider text-divider-title=”Story continues below gallery” ]The lodge and the campgrounds were also still closed at press time as state park staff continued to evaluate the sediment levels in Ogle Lake. A portable treatment tank was being used to pre-filter sediment from water before it enters the park’s treatment facility.
The only other times the park has closed to visitors has been in October when traffic is high, Murphy said.
“I think it has maybe only happened once or twice that I’m aware of,” she said.
When the park was closed Monday, Murphy said a lot of the campers and visitors staying at the lodge had already gone home after the weekend.
About 50 campers between the horseman camp and the other sites had to leave early when the park was closed June 17. An additional 16 campers were notified who were supposed to check in that day.
“People were understanding. It’s the rainfall and the sediment. It’s not anything we can do anything about,” Murphy said.
Abe Martin Lodge was at about 50 percent occupancy on June 17 when the park first closed. Those guests went home or were re-booked at other state parks.
When the decision was made to close for the entire weekend, that meant canceling or transferring reservations for about 250 campsites as well as 172 rooms and cabins at the lodge complex.
“June is a busy month,” Murphy said.
“It is unfortunate that it’s happening. We would certainly rather not be doing this. This is a time when expect people to enjoy themselves and have a good time.”
The overflow of Ogle Lake washed down to Upper Schooner Road, where one family had to be rescued as water rose around their home.
Murphy said a creek that runs through the horseman camp also came “way up” during the weekend flash flooding, causing campers to have to move. Picnic tables and other items were pushed from sites. Murphy said that staff was evaluating the campground last week for flood damage.
Trails were to be evaluated, too. “The trails will be wet and muddy as long as it keeps raining, but we’ll look for downed trees or anything like that that might be a concern as well,” she said.
Jane Ellis, executive director of the Brown County Convention and Visitors Bureau, said last week that the Brown County Visitors Center had not received many phone calls from visitors asking about flooding, but that might change over the weekend.
“The weather always kills us,” she said.
“I thought it was fantastic that the Playhouse continued their show and took them to the basement. I think it’s great that Bill Monroe (Memorial Music Park) continued on (with the bluegrass festival) in the downpour. They still delivered for the people that were there.”
Countywide impact
The National Weather Service confirmed that a small EF0 tornado touched down in Brown County at about 8 p.m. June 15, said Brown County Emergency Management Director Susan Armstrong.
The tornado touched down around the Valley Branch Road area in southern Brown County, which was also hit with heavy rain that day, flooding several county roads and highways.
“The tornado touched down in a field and was only on the ground for a couple minutes, causing only some damage to a tree line before lifting back up,” Armstrong said.
Storm spotter Rian Lynch caught the tornado on video, which helped EMA get information to the NWS and first responders in the area, Armstrong said.
As of last week, all county roads that had sustained damage were open.
“Of course, we still have some of our low-water crossings where the road is closed, but as far as damages, we at least got them patched enough to at least get them back open,” Brown County Highway Superintendent Mike Magner said last week during the Brown County Commissioners meeting.
One of the biggest issues the highway department had to deal with during flash flooding was a large culvert washing out on Crooked Creek Road, which closed the road.
“We did that first thing Monday morning because everybody down there was trapped. The water was up on T.C. Steele and they couldn’t get out on Crooked Creek,” Magner said.
“That is the same one that washed out in February. We concreted it back in again. It should hold better this time. There was just so much water coming down through there it didn’t have a chance.”
The rain this season has also delayed prep work for road paving this summer. “If it would ever get back to normal it would be OK. If it continues much longer it will just put us behind,” Magner said.
The recent damage to roads is also causing Magner to reevaluate his locally-funded paving plans.
Last week highway department crews were out repairing washouts and cutting trees that had fallen, as well as repairing smaller culverts impacted by flash flooding.
With more rain in the forecast last week, Magner said the only preparations his department could do were making sure they had enough supplies on hand, like stone, and that their equipment was working.
“You really can’t prepare because you don’t know where it’s going to hit. This past weekend was mainly the southern part of the county, but the next storm may be the opposite end,” he said.
The flooding also delayed the department’s response time for downed trees.
“We would get a call for a tree down or something and have to take a 10-mile detour to find a way to get there,” Magner said.
He said the flash flooding did the majority of the damage to county roads, bu the county’s bridges appeared fine so far.
On T.C. Steele Road, SCI REMC power crews became flooded in while working in the area.
“The truck on the T.C. Steele side could not get out, so they called dispatch and said they would just work all night because they couldn’t get out to leave to go home,” said county commissioner Diana Biddle.
County commissioner Jerry Pittman, who has lived in southern Brown County for decades, said he had never seen flash flooding like what happened the weekend of June 15.
“I’ve never seen water come down the Gnaw Bone area like it has this spring,” he said. “We had 14 inches of rain in the last six weeks. It’s crossed over the driveway into the farm and business there multiple times.”
Commissioner Diana Biddle said she also had never seen Ogle Lake come out of the spillway like it had over the weekend. “It looked like a river,” she said. Magner said the first report his department received from dispatch was that the dam had actually broken, because that’s what it looked like.
Any relief?
This is probably only the beginning of a long, wet summer, said David Call, a metorology professor at Ball State University.
“The long-range forecast calls for continuous rain throughout the summer for the Midwest. Overall, it’s been a wet year and it will stay wet,” Call said in a press release.
“Right now, we are wondering if it will ever stop raining, but in 2012, we had the worst drought since the Dust Bowl and people wondered if it would ever rain again.”
