News

Flood couldn’t have come at worse time

Published by admin on Thu, 08/08/2019 - 9:47am
Custer County Sheriff Marty Mechaley didn’t mince any words when asked about last Friday afternoon’s flash flood through Custer.
“It couldn’t have happened at a worse time,” the sheriff said early the next morning. “It came on so fast.”
The sheriff’s office was one of a multitude of first responder agencies to participate in a rally planning meeting Thursday, July 25.

Repeat of 20 years ago

Published by admin on Thu, 08/08/2019 - 9:31am
Last Saturday morning started out like many typical beautiful Black Hills mornings with some overcast skies in Custer, but by 9 o’clock everything began to change.
The sky turned dark, in fact it was dark enough to cause the street lights to flicker. It was easy to see it would soon be raining and sure enough around 11 a.m. in downtown Custer the rain started coming down in buckets. It kept coming and kept coming for more than five hours without a break. The rain would let up a little and then five minutes later it would become a downpour again. 

Lynn’s works to stay open

Published by admin on Thu, 08/08/2019 - 9:30am
When water started coming in both the front door and the back door of Lynn’s Dakotamart and the electricity went out shortly after 6 p.m. on Friday, manager Dan Grapentine evacuated the store.
“We lost some product. Some stands fell over,” he said on Saturday, “and we had to throw some meat product away, but the electricity came on soon enough that most was saved.”
Dan said everybody from the office worked until 2 a.m. to get the building cleaned up. The company’s general manager and owner from Rapid City came to Custer to help with the cleanup.

Stockade closed to swimming

Published by admin on Thu, 08/08/2019 - 9:24am

The beach at Stockade Lake in Custer State Park has been closed pending testing of its water following last Friday’s flood.

Storm sat on Custer for hours

Published by admin on Thu, 08/08/2019 - 9:20am
The Friday, Aug. 2, thunderstorm that caused the biggest flash flood in recorded Custer history did so by hovering over Custer and the French Creek Watershed and unleashing as much as seven inches of rain and two feet of hail in some places, sending water rushing down the north and south forks of French and Ruby creeks, which then converged in the Upper French Creek area before ravaging land it came in contact with as it made its way into and through the city of Custer.

Around 20 stranded at golf course

Published by admin on Thu, 08/08/2019 - 9:14am

Custer resident Paul Kelley was headed out to Rocky Knolls Golf Course for a round of golf last Friday when an alert came over his cell phone that Custer had a flash flood warning. He remembers thinking, “We never get that indication on our phone in Custer.”

Drone surveys damages

Published by admin on Thu, 08/08/2019 - 9:07am
“We were scrambling to make sure people were safe and not going into the water,” said Custer County Search & Rescue (SAR)  director Rick March.
“After the fire departments arrived, we moved into traffic control duty,” he said.
“We were amazed that West Dam stood up after such a heavy hit,” March said. SAR was downtown  when the heaviest floodwater hit.
When things started calming down a few hours later, he was able to get the department’s newest drone up in the air to survey the damage through Custer from the west to the east.

The Flood of 2019: A disaster timeline

Published by admin on Thu, 08/08/2019 - 9:06am
By Ron Burtz
 
While water rose quickly in Custer and rescues were taking place at a rapid rate on Friday evening, the Flood of 2019 actually developed gradually over several hours starting with a slow-moving thunderstorm that covered a large area between Custer and the Upper French Creek watershed. 
Here is a timeline of the event gleaned from eyewitness accounts, Custer County Dispatch logs and internet posts:

City to seek state, federal flood relief

Published by admin on Wed, 08/07/2019 - 4:21pm

City council awash in flood talk

Published by admin on Wed, 08/07/2019 - 4:13pm
Last Friday’s flood was the big topic—and pretty much the only topic—discussed during the regular portion of the Aug. 5 meeting of the Custer City Council.
City public works director Bob Morrison was quick to give city staff a pat on the back, saying by Saturday at noon a lot of cleanup had already been completed, while acknowledging there was still much work to do.
“We swallowed the hippo Friday night,” Morrison said. “Now we can eat the elephant one bite at a time.”