Floods return to Mulvane, and so do Great Plains crews

Just when Lancie Price of Mulvane, Kansas, thought the worst of the flood damage to her home was over, more water poured in on Sept. 8.

Price, whose house is behind the Mulvane High School football stadium and in front of a creek, already suffered the worst damage after an Aug. 19 downpour.

“We don’t have anything down there. Everything’s been gutted except for the hot water heaters,” said Price, who had returned to her house with her husband and 9- and 7-year-old daughters last week.

“We had a lot of tools downstairs,” she said of the flood’s return, “but as we started seeing the water rising we got our tools up and got the fans up and dehumidifiers upstairs.”

Preventing a third act was on the mind of disaster relief crews from the Great Plains Conference on Sept. 9. In an idea conceived by Wichita volunteer David Rayson and pulled off by Southwestern College students who arrived with the Rev. Lora Andrews, pastor of Grace United Methodist Church in Winfield, V-shaped frames covered by tarps were erected above the window wells of the house. That could prevent a recurrence of the flooding in the Prices’ basement, with a chance of more rain arriving that night.

Price contacted the American Red Cross, who put her in touch with the Rev. Hollie Tapley, conference disaster response coordinator. Tapley summoned help to the Prices’ house, and gave comfort to the part-time school substitute teacher, down to an emotional hug.






“If it hadn’t been for Hollie and her white horse, good Lord,” Price said. “She came out and did an assessment of the house and has been so much help. It’s been amazing.”

Crews that included the Rev. Mitch Reece, Wichita East district superintendent, went up and down First Street in Wichita, among the Prices’ neighbors, to see what help they needed.
 
Contact David Burke, communications coordinator, at dburke@greatplainsumc.org.

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