By Brian Livingston / blivingston@themeridianstar.com
The Meridian Star
MERIDIAN — Firefighters from Russell Volunteer Fire and Rescue and emergency personnel from the Lauderdale County Emergency Management Agency rescued a man who had tried to drive through a flooded roadway Friday morning.
Neal Carson, Lauderdale County road engineer said late Friday morning at about 8 a.m. emergency crews were alerted to Knox Road in Russell and when they arrived they found the man sitting on top of his car.
"The water was about four feet deep at that point," Carson said. "There is a drainage pipe running right through there and it became clogged up making the water back up."
Meteorologists with the National Weather Service in Jackson said Friday the area received almost three inches of rain adding that some parts of Lauderdale County likely got a little more while other parts got a little less.
A cable from a wrecker was hooked to the car and pulled the vehicle out of the water with the man still sitting on the roof. The man, whose identity has not been released, was not hurt.
Carson said work crews from MDOT, Norfolk Southern Railroad and the county were working to get the drainage pipe open. He was not sure when the work would be completed because he expected it to take several hours for crews to find where exactly in the line the plug was.
"A section of this drainage pipe runs underneath the railroad and under Highway 80 East," said Carson. "From there it goes for quite a ways through private property. We have already alerted the landowner we may have to dig up the pipe to find the plug."
LEMA Director David Sharp said barricades were put up at that location last night when the flooding first began. Sharp, who was not at the scene this morning, said measures were taken with the barricades to stop the use of the road for the safety of motorists.
Carson said no other area of the county presented a problem.
"We had a couple of minor washouts but we fixed them pretty quick," Carson said.
