Dodge City Avenue "D" Floods

Just a short remembrance here. One of my grandparents lived down on Avenue "D" in Dodge and often I would stay with them for a week or two at a time fishing with my grandfather. It must of rained more in those days as many a night we sat on the porch swinging and watching the lightning. Grandpa would sit in his old rocker with his feet on the porch pillar peeling an apple or grapefruit and grandmother would tell stories of the old days when her mother lived in Missouri.

The rains would come pounding down on the streets and yards and Avenue "D" was at the bottom of all the other streets so a flood would ensue almost every time it rained. Many a time I could watch cars washing past in the rising waters.
The curbs are very high there and the houses built up probably 3 or more feet out of the streets to allow for this natural drainage. The water would pour down to the highway and across and under the railroad tracks ending up in the Arkansas River eventually.

There is just no way to allow for that much runoff with underground piping so it probably remains the same to this day. Those hills were sure a challenge as I rode my bike around town and up to the North end visiting my Grandparents Kirkpatrick.