Shunganunga Creek floodwaters recede

Residents along the Shunganunga Creek in Topeka appeared to have dodged a bullet Friday, as that waterway was back within its banks after flooding significantly Thursday in some areas, including an uninhabited part of southwest Topeka’s Crestview Park.

The National Weather Service indicated Friday it no longer had Shawnee County under a flash flood warning, which it had allowed to expire late Thursday.

Shunganunga Creek had been rising rapidly Thursday when Shawnee County Emergency Management suggested residents in the area of the creek prepare to move to a safer area in the event it continued to rise.

But the emergency management department said late Thursday on Facebook, “The Shunga Creek in most of the areas has receded back into its banks and many of the retention areas that were full earlier are emptied out.”

Topeka still had a chance for some additional rain, the emergency management department said Friday morning on Facebook.

But the website of the weather service’s Topeka office indicated this area was only expected to see a slight chance of rain on Friday, Saturday and Sunday.

Meteorologist Brandon Drake, of the weather service’s Topeka office, said there were reports of 5.2 inches of rain in some areas locally on Thursday.

The weather service indicated Topeka officially received 1.95 inches of rain Friday after getting 2.53 inches Thursday at its office near northeast Topeka’s Philip Billard Municipal Airport.

That brought the city’s rainfall total for the first 30 days of July to 9.95 inches. On average, the city receives 3.7 inches of rain during that time period.