Floodwaters are shown in June at the Schnitker farm at 2100 E. State Road 258, Seymour. Submitted photo | Luke Schnitker

July was the first month of 2019 that Jackson County first responders did not have to save anyone from floodwaters, a report from the sheriff’s department shows.

First responders here conducted 63 water rescues from January through June but none last month, a contrast between the wet winter and spring and dry summer.

The most water rescues were conducted in June when there were 28, according to the report. First responders conducted one in March.

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The data comes as a flood committee formed in February and has been weighing options to take proactive steps at preventing motorists from driving through high waters and updating the floodwater ordinance, which was last revised in 2012.

The committee is made up of Jackson County Commissioner Drew Markel, Sheriff Rick Meyer, Highway Superintendent Jerry Ault, Conservation Officer Nate Berry and Barry Hall, who represents the public.

The committee has applied for a $90,000 grant from the Indiana Department of Homeland Security to purchase water-activated crossing arms to place at roads where many of the rescues take place.

The device would be equipped with indicators that would alert the arms to go down once water reaches a certain point in the area. The arms would signal motorists that the road is closed.

The county currently has to place barricades and uses other methods to attempt to prevent motorists from crossing into floodwaters.

Markel said the committee would like to purchase 10 systems and place them on five roads in Brownstown, Rockford, Shieldstown and Vallonia. Each costs about $14,000 plus installation.

“We’d like to start with that,” he said.

The committee has found that a majority of water rescues conducted here are for people who are not from Jackson County. Markel said they are weighing how to implement awareness for those who are not familiar with the roads.

“We know we want to put things out there on social media so that maybe a visitor to Jackson County will know that when we have a big river, the roads are impassible through flooded roadways,” he said.

Another idea that has been debated is doubling the fine to $1,000 for motorists who drive through floodwaters.

“We’re trying to use common sense,” Markel said.

The idea came from Council President Dave Hall after first responders made nine rescues in the month of January and multiple in December.

Hall, who is Barry Hall’s son, has said he would like to see half the money go to volunteer fire departments and the other half go to educating the public on the dangers of driving through floodwaters.

This year’s floodwaters have not only impacted first responders but also local farmers and the county’s roadways.

In June — the month with the highest number of rescues — Jackson County received the most rainfall over the course of a week than the 38 other counties in the National Weather Service in Indianapolis coverage area.

At that time, the county received 8.24 inches of rain in seven days.

Only Brown, Lawrence and Monroe counties — all which border Jackson — had measurements above 8 inches in that area during the same time period.

Rainfall persisted due to a continuous pattern of disturbances in the upper atmosphere, Meteorologist Kacie Hoover said. That combination created an environment that encouraged rainfall and slow-moving storms.

Those conditions proved difficult for area farmers this spring and prompted the federal government to declare a disaster in 88 of Indiana’s 92 counties to open access to lower-cost loans and programs for farmers.

It’s the reason Ninth District Congressman Trey Hollingsworth visited the county Tuesday evening for a town hall meeting at local farmer and county councilman Brian Thompson’s house. He discussed an array of issues affecting farmers during the event. He held a similar event in Memphis last week and has others planned throughout the district during the congressional recess, which ends Sept. 10.

“The farming community has been suffering for several years now given commodity prices but even more acutely with the rain in the spring and summer,” Hollingsworth said.

He said while the difficult planting season is a big issue, he also plans to focus on stabilizing commodity prices, which have dropped amid trade tensions between the United States and China. He said updating the North American Free Trade Agreement to the proposed United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement also will help stabilize markets.

U.S. and Chinese leaders have been in discussions for the last couple of years to resolve issues, Hollingsworth said.

Hollingsworth accused China of “actively ripping off American intellectual property and not playing by the rules of free trade” for the last 20 years. He also said he agreed with President Donald Trump’s approach of finding a new trade deal with China.

In the meantime, China has been purchasing soybeans from Brazil rather than the United States, Hollingsworth said.

When asked whether he thought those markets would return, Hollingsworth said that’s a concern everyone has had through the discussions.

“We need the right deal, but we need the right deal as soon as possible,” he said. “It took decades to get these markets going and to what extent will those markets return rather than being permanently destroyed. There is genuine concern about that.”

His concern is lessened, though, he said, when he considers his belief that U.S. farmers will out-compete Brazil and other countries, even as Brazil clears more land for agriculture use.

“The American farmer is the most productive, hardest-working farmer around the world,” he said. “We not only produce enough to feed ourselves but for much of the world because of the hard work, ingenuity and diligence of the farmer.”

Farmers with questions should contact his congressional office, Hollingsworth said.

The amount of rainfall in the spring in Jackson County also caused damage to county roads. The most significant damage occurred on County Road 150S near Medora, where an 80-foot metal culvert pipe washed out, creating a 20-foot gap that was about 6 feet deep.

A creek flows beneath the road, but water was running over the road due to the flash flooding.

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 was never recovered.