Thirty years ago this week, the Arkansas River crested at its highest level ever, 25.2 feet, after the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers opened Keystone Dam’s floodgates so it wouldn’t overflow.
A total of 20 inches of early fall rain forced the release. Mayor Dewey Bartlett said subsequent improvements to Tulsa’s stormwater system meant to prevent that sort of flooding were tested during similar storms last year.
"And we passed with flying colors," Bartlett said. "Our neighbors in Oklahoma City, they had flooding all throughout their downtown area. Several Texas towns had the same problem. But we didn't."
Bartlett and federal officials unveiled a sign at Cousins Park in south Tulsa to mark the 1986 flood. Its high water mark is 3.5 feet above 121st Street west of Yale.
National Weather Service lead meteorologist in Tulsa Steve Piltz said history will repeat itself.
"We don't know when that will occur, but we'll be challenged again on the Arkansas River," Piltz said. "And we need to be ready for that day, and through all of our efforts, I know that we are going to better prepare the community and we're going to give folks the time they need to plan to take action."
The 1986 flood in Tulsa County caused $137 million in damage in today’s dollars. Army Corps of Engineers Col. Christopher Hussin said technological advances help prevent similar flooding today.
"One example is stream gauges, which measure the water flow of rivers and streams into our reservoirs. What used to take six, eight, at times 10 hours to read and process now we can do in nearly instantaneous time," Hussin said.
Hussin says communication between the corps, emergency officials and forecasters is much faster now, too.