By Gary Ogle
gogle@wbcowqel.com
The Basement Doctor van was making house calls in and around Galion on Tuesday morning and there was no shortage of patients. The normally peaceful and serene head waters of the Olentangy River looked more like the mighty and muddy Mississippi after the heavy rains and especially the torrential downfall early Tuesday morning.
Heise Park was victim to the excess and unwanted rainfall. Portions of the park were closed because of the unsafe high levels of the Olentangy which were flowing uncharacteristically fast through the park. A lot of the overflow found its way onto the Little League baseball complex that hosted a tournament just last week.
Three Longwell brothers were there with their grandparents to see firsthand what the flood waters had done to the field.
“I’m not happy about it,” said 7-year-old Kael. Faced with the now unplayable field that could remain that way even after the flood waters recede, the youngster dressed in his Tigers baseball shirt admitted, “I may have to start playing another sport.”
Little Leaguers weren’t the only ones displaced by the Olentangy’s inability to hold back the flood waters. A doe and two fawns found dry ground in the lawn of a home on Heise Park Lane. A Church Street resident where the water not only made it into his backyard, but all the way into his garage and basement, just rested his head on his hands while leaning on a truck.
It wasn’t only the sights of high water that told the story. It was the sounds as well. Water rushing by, storm sewers gurgling and bubbling with waters coming up onto the streets from underneath, the clanging and thumping made by debris bumping the underside of bridges as the storm surge carried it downstream towards Delaware and Columbus, and the knock of Galion police and firefighters on doors in the affected areas of the community to check on residents.
Some of that water made it into Darlene’s Dairy Bar. Owner Ryan Bowman said it wasn’t as bad as it could have been.
“We only got a couple of inches in there. None of the equipment or anything got ruined. We were able to pump it out with a sump pump,” Bowman said. “We’ve just got to sweep and mop in there and we’ll be ready to go.”
Right next door the used car lot of Donley’s Ford was still wet, but it was also devoid of cars as the dealer sought to avoid a repeat of what had happened before.
It was a repeat at Gospel Baptist Church on Ohio 19 midway between Galion and Bucyrus, still recovering from a flood that caused an estimated $300,000 uninsured damage less than a month ago.
“We sure did,” Pastor Monty Trammel said of being flooded again. “I’m on my way home now to change into my work clothes, my flood clothes.”
Trammel indicated the second time around in less than four weeks wasn’t as bad as the first.
“We got water in some of the Sunday school rooms and the old kitchen, but not in the front lobby,” Trammel said.
The big difference this time was that there was no sewer back up, just overflow and flooding from the ditch behind the church that dumps into the Olentangy. Trammel said some work on the septic system help alleviate that problem. The church is in the process of working with area landowners to redirect the ditch farther away from the church and increase its capacity. But that work can’t be completed until after the harvest this fall.
Trammel said the church is accepting donations to help offset cleanup and repair costs at its Web site at http://www.gospelbaptist.com.
Unfortunately, the flooding in the near term may not be over yet as more heavy rains have been forecast still this week. Wednesday morning Galion police said all streets int he city were open and there had not been any additional reports of flooding.
A gallery of flood pictures in Galion, Bucyrus and various places in Crawford County are posted on the Photo page.