1984 — May 26-27, Flash Flooding, Tulsa, OK — 14

lornajarrettblanchard May 26, 1983

–14 City of Tulsa. Flood Control and Drainage. “Flooding History.” Website accessed 6-17-13

–14 NCDC, NOAA. Storm Data, Vol. 26, No. 5, May 1984, p. 12.

–14 Overall, Michael. “25 years ago, flood buried Tulsa.” Tulsa World, 5-24-2009.

–14 Patton, Ann. From Harm’s Way: Flood-Hazard Mitigation in Tulsa…. City of Tulsa, 1993.

Narrative Information

City of Tulsa: “….The 1984 Memorial Day Flood, the worst in the city’s history, was Tulsa’s watershed point.

“After a muggy Sunday afternoon, a stalled cool front produced some 15 inches of mid-night rain, centered over Mingo Creek but also extending across most of the city. The results were disastrous.

“The 1984 Memorial Day Flood killed 14, injured 288, damaged or destroyed nearly 7,000 buildings, and left $180 million in damages ($257 million in 1994 dollars). Mingo Creek alone accounted for $125 million of the damages.

“The newly elected mayor and street commissioner had been in office for only 19 days, but both knew the issues well. In the darkest hours of the city’s worst disaster, they pledged to make their response reduce the likelihood that such a disaster would ever be repeated. Before daylight, they had assembled the city’s first Flood Hazard Mitigation Team to develop the city’s strategy. Within days, a new approach to Tulsa flood response and recovery was born.

“As ultimately completed, the program included relocation of 300 flooded homes and a 228-pad mobile home park, $10.5 million in flood control works, and $2.1 million for master drainage plans. The total capital program topped $30 million, mostly from local capital sources, flood insurance claim checks, and federal funds.” (City of Tulsa. Flood Control and Drainage. “Flooding History.” Website accessed 6-17-2013.)

NCDC: “Heavy rains fell over a 6-hour period on the Tulsa, Oklahoma Metropolitan Area, from late evening on May 26^th to the early morning of May 27^th. The rain caused flash flooding that killed 14 people. 12 persons drowned, and the remaining 2 died from injuries. Thousands of homes and autos sustained damage, which was estimated to be 89.6 million dollars worth. The highest official rainfall amount was 8.63 inches, recorded at the NWSO at Tulsa’s International Airport….” (NCDC, NOAA. Storm Data, Vol. 26, No. 5, May 1984, p. 12.)

Overall: “The phone rang at 3 o’clock in the morning to tell her to get out of bed right away and come downtown to the Emergency Operations Center. City dump trucks had already been dispatched to carry other officials through the flooded streets, with the Crosstown Expressway under 3 feet of water. “We were getting reports of cars being swept off the highways,” remembers Ann Patton, then an aide to Public Works Commissioner J.D. Metcalfe. “Families were stranded on the roofs of their homes.”

“The rain began late that Saturday evening [May 26] and didn’t stop for more than 24 hours, finally letting up on the Sunday night [May 27] before Memorial Day [May 28] 1984, 25 years ago this weekend. Officially, Tulsa measured 9.35 inches of rain. But, unofficially, parts of town saw more than 14 inches. At the peak of the storm, Brookside received 2 inches of rain in 15 minutes.

“The flooding killed 14 people, forced 3,500 families out of their homes, damaged 7,000 houses and businesses and cost the city between $150 million and $180 million, depending on the source….” (Overall, Michael. “25 years ago, flood buried Tulsa.” Tulsa World, 5-24-2009. Accessed 6-17-2013.)

Patton: “….The flood of Memorial Day ’84 made Tulsa’s previous record flood of Memorial Day ’76 look like a practice drill. This time, up to 15 inches of rain fell in no more than six hours, again centered on the Mingo Creek basin but extending throughout much of the city. The results were devastating. The 1984 flood killed 14, injured 288, and left $180 million in damages citywide. Mingo Creek alone accounted for $125 million of the damages….” (Patton, Ann. From Harm’s Way: Flood-Hazard Mitigation in Tulsa, Oklahoma. City of Tulsa, 1993.)

USGS: “Abstract: The greatest flood disaster in the history of Tulsa, Oklahoma occurred during 8 hours from 2030 hours May 26 to 0430 hours May 27, 1984, as a result of intense rainfall centered over the metropolitan area. Storms of the magnitude that caused this flood are not uncommon to the southern great plains. Such storms are seldom documented in large urban areas. Total rainfall depth and rainfall distribution in the Tulsa metropolitan area during the May 26-27 storm were recorded by 16 recording rain gages…. The limits of the study areas…are the corporate boundaries of Tulsa, an area of about 185 square miles. Streams draining the city are: Dirty Butter, Coal, and Mingo Creeks which drain northward into Bird Creek along the northern boundary of the city; and Cherry, Crow, Harlow, Joe Haikey, Fry, Vensel, Fred, and Mooser Creeks which flow into the Arkansas River along the southern part of the city. Flooding along Haikey, Fry, Fred, Vensel, and Mooser Creeks was not documented for this report. The Arkansas River is regulated by Keystone Dam upstream from Tulsa…The Arkansas River remained below flood stage during the storm. Flooded areas in Tulsa…were delineated on the topographic maps using flood profiles based on surveys of high-water marks identified immediately after the flood. The flood boundaries show the limits of stream flooding. Additional areas flooded because of overfilled storm drains or by sheet runoff are not shown in this report. Data presented in this report, including rainfall duration and frequency, and flood discharges and elevations, provide city officials and consultants a technical basis for making flood-plain management decisions.” (U.S. Geological Survey. Flood of May 26-27, 1984 in Tulsa, Oklahoma. USGS Hydrologic Atlas: 707.)

Sources

City of Tulsa. Flood Control and Drainage. Website accessed 6-17-2013 at: https://www.cityoftulsa.org/city-services/flood-control/flooding-history.aspx

National Climatic Data Center. Storm Data, Vol. 26, No. 5, May 1984, 55 pages. Asheville, NC: NCDC, NOAA, U.S. Department of Commerce. Accessed 2-2-2017 at: https://www1.ncdc.noaa.gov/pub/orders/IPS/IPS-8B7938E7-D085-41B5-BD86-32B4E38F0536.pdf

Overall, Michael. “25 years ago, flood buried Tulsa.” Tulsa World, 5-24-2009. Accessed 6-17-2013: http://www.tulsaworld.com/article.aspx/25_years_ago_flood_buried_Tulsa/20090524_11_a13_thepow525438

Patton, Ann. From Harm’s Way: Flood-Hazard Mitigation in Tulsa, Oklahoma. City of Tulsa, 1993. Accessed 6-17-2013 at: http://www.smartcommunities.ncat.org/pubs/harmsway/bb.shtml

United States Geological Survey DeRoy L. Bergman and Robert L. Tortorelli). Flood of May 26-27, 1984 in Tulsa, Oklahoma (Hydrologic Atlas: 707). 2-10-2012 modification. Accessed 22-2017 at: https://pubs.er.usgs.gov/publication/ha707