Heavy rains overnight in the Black Hills have pushed Rapid Creek and nearby streams out of their banks.
Flooding has overtopped bridges and roads in the eastern part of Rapid City and forced some road closures.
Alexa White with Pennington County Emergency Management says more rain is forecast and this could push water levels even higher.
She says this could even cut of access to some low lying residential areas.
“And we certainly don’t want that to happen. If they can plan ahead that would be the ideal thing so we don’t have to do some kind of rescue of somebody trying to get home or trying to get out. If they’re going to be in an area where they are isolated maybe they can make plans to be somewhere else tonight if we have additional rains that cause it to rise over the roadway or over the bridge where they’re at,” says White.
White adds that driving on flooded roads is dangerous. Six inches of moving water can sweep a car off the roadway. White adds that Pactola Reservoir is now higher than any time since 1965 and officials may need to increase releases out of the dam.—pushing Rapid Creek even higher.
Here is a list of current road that are flooded and those that could become flooded in continued rains.
Heavy Rains on June 4th closed the following roads:
• Reservoir Road at Rapid Creek Bridge
• Green Valley Drive between Reservoir and Greenfield Road
• 143rd –Area North and South of Neva Way
• Palmer Gulch Road Closed- Access still open on Forest Service Road to Old Hill City Road
Additional threatened roads with some water or very high water under bridges include:
• South Valley Drive Bridge
• Dunn Rd –East end
• Anderson Road at Rapid Creek Bridge
• Elk Vale Road near Flying J.
• S. Ellsworth Road Bridge
• Radar Hill Rd. Bridge
