Portions of two roads in western Jackson County were washed away during persistent flash flooding Wednesday evening.
Crews from the county highway department were sent to those roads in the Medora area on Thursday morning to assess damage and begin repairs.
The damaged roads included County Road 150S, County Road 75S and County Road 1250W, Superintendent Jerry Ault said.
The most significant damage occurred on County Road 150S where an 80-foot metal culvert pipe washed out, creating a 20-foot gap that was about six feet deep.
A creek flows beneath the road, but on Wednesday evening water was running over the road due to the flash flooding.
The National Weather Service issued a flash flood warning at 7:57 p.m. The heavy rainfall caused the East Fork White River to swell 4 feet from 5.88 feet at 5:15 p.m. Wednesday and to nearly 10 feet at 9 a.m. Thursday, according to the weather service.
According to a weather station at Brownstown Central High School, about 1.10 inch of rain fell during the storms that whisked through the area.
A motorist called to report the condition of County Road 150S. At that time, about 5 feet of water was flowing through the gap, Ault said.
Half of the pipe was swept 40 and 50 feet downstream from the road while the other half had not been found as of Thursday morning, he said.
Ault said crews drove a bulldozer through the creek and surrounding area trying to find it, but were unsuccessful Thursday morning.
“There was so much water coming through the creek that it took the culvert pipe out,” he said. “I don’t know where the other section is. It took it somewhere.”
Ault said he believes the road could be repaired sometime Thursday depending on whether they could find the second half of the pipe.
A smaller pipe, about 5 feet long, was washed out from beneath the roadway on County Road 75S, leaving an 8-foot gap, Ault said. That roadway was repaired Thursday afternoon.
Floodwaters also flowed over a bridge on County Road 1250W, and left a large amount of debris across it. Crews cleared it early Thursday.
Ault estimated the cost for repairs would be around $10,000 if a new pipe had to be purchased to repair County Road 150S. If it can be salvaged, the cost would be around $6,000.
Ault said while no one was injured, the incident serves as a reminder of the dangers of driving through floodwaters.
“Before it washed out, water was running over the road,” he said. “That shows you a person shouldn’t drive through floodwaters because you don’t know whether the road is under there or not.”