Flood — Le Flore, Oklahoma

2015-05-10 to 2015-05-15 · near Coal Creek, Le Flore, Oklahoma

Event narrative

The Poteau River near Panama rose above its flood stage of 29 feet at 2:15 am CDT on May 10th. The river crested at 43.54 feet at 1:00 am CDT on the 12th, resulting in major flooding. Very severe agricultural flooding occurred and many county roads were totally impassable. One flood-related fatality occurred at around 3:30 am CDT on the 11th near Spiro when a man tried to rescue cattle that had been inundated by flood waters. He drown and was found on May 13th. The river fell below flood stage at 11:30 pm CDT on the 15th.

Wider weather episode

A slow-moving low pressure system moving into the Plains on the 9th and 10th resulted in multiple periods of thunderstorms across the region. Widespread heavy rainfall occurred as a result of this activity, which caused moderate flooding of the Poteau River near Poteau and major flooding near Panama.

View location on OpenStreetMap → (35.1906, -94.6692)

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 583474. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.