 | Faye Graves, a native Wichitan, attended school at Friends and Wichita State, concluding at Midwestern Theological Seminary. He has been active in media for many years with Channel 12, KIRL, KFDI, KOOO AM & FM (Omaha), KFRM & KICT 95, as an owner, manager, producer, director and announcer. He has served as President of the Haysville Board of Education. He has also served on several national boards of the Southern Baptist Convention. Faye currently serves as Executive Pastor and Director of Administration and Education at Immanuel Baptist Church, 1415 S. Topeka, Wichita. You may contact Faye by e-mail fmgraves@amenibc.org, or by phone at (316) 262-1452. |
Nostalgia
2005-07-01 10:35:00
40’s floods
: Do you remember before the big ditch was built and all of the flooding issues Wichita had?
ANSWER: I was watching it rain last month and thought to myself, "Is it ever going to stop?" I am sure many of you had the same thought. Each night there were severe thunderstorm warnings, many of them carrying tornados. At one point we decided to go to the play at the Crown Uptown and we had to take Oliver Street to get through the flooding. Well, that was not the end. When we arrived, Ted Morris announced that the front of the theatre was flooded due to the city installing a drainage sewer pipe that would not handle the water, and this was the fourth time this had happened. He jokingly said, "The lakeside seats are available at no extra cost". Stripes are good. All of this brings back the memories of the 1940's when the whole north end of Wichita was flooded nearly every year. The Arkansas River would come out of its banks on a regular basis whenever the rains came. Then the genius of the planners that installed the Big Ditch came along. That one large expenditure way back in the 40's has saved the citizens of this city billions of dollars. I live in Haysville and there have been two times in 27 years that I thought the water was going to overflow the Big Ditch but it did not. The level would rise as far as the second embankment but would not overflow. I realize the Cowskin Creek and some of West Wichita still has problems with flooding at times, but the county and city are trying to correct them now.The memories are still very real of my family in that day and age; lying in my bed at night and listening to the flood water fill our basement at 11th and Lewellen Streets. It was not a good feeling. Some of the other teens and I had a little boat that we would use to get groceries and take them to people in the neighborhood, but it was a real drag to everyone who lived in the flood area of North Wichita. My great-aunt, who was in her eighties, had many major trauma spells trying to survive the flooding of her house in the 30th block of North Market Street. I wrote this article to praise the folks that had the foresight to install a major project like the Big Ditch, and found the dollars way back then to fund something so vast.
