SPEARFISH - Surging floodwaters drove about 100 people from their mobile homes in Whitewood, soaked basements, stranded bikers, wiped out a dam and trapped about 40 people in their homes in a subdivision north of Spearfish.

Families in 13 homes north of Spearfish were stranded when Higgins Creek gushed across Pheasant Lane, according to Paul Thomson, emergency management director for Lawrence County.

Standing near the flooded-out gravel road, Thomson said he could not see if the culvert had survived the floodwaters.

But Thomson said the stranded people were OK. He had been in contact with them by cell phone Thursday afternoon.

He had arranged with a local farmer to get a 4-wheel-drive tractor into the stranded houses in case one of the residents has an emergency.

"They're just sitting tight for the time being," he said.

In Spearfish, a brown and roiling Spearfish Creek escaped its banks, flooding Jackson Boulevard. Police closed a stretch of the street, near Taco John's and a knot of kids turned it into a splash playground.

In Whitewood, authorities evacuated a mobile home court shortly after 5 a.m. as a gully above the court spilled water over the roads. A few sought shelter at Black Hills Baptist Church, but most went to friends' or relatives' houses, the Rev. Richard Counts said.

Deb Olson, who lives on O'Dea Street in the mobile home court, said she was getting ready for work about 5 a.m. when she heard the rushing water.

"I looked out my bathroom window and called my husband and said, 'You've got to look at this,'" Olson said. "It was like a rushing river. It's just a gully normally."

Despite water on the road, she got in her car and headed for work at April's Place convenience store a few blocks away. "I came around a corner, and there was debris in the road, and I thought I'm just going to gun it," Olson said. "I got across OK."

She said her 10-year-old son Jared earlier had asked her if it would flood. "I said, 'It'll never flood in Whitewood.' Boy, am I eating my words," Olson said.

She hoped to get back into her house when she got off work.

People already were being allowed back into their mobile homes by late morning, said Dawn Bosworth, who went to stay at her sister-in-law's house after she was evacuated.

The mobile homes and the roads in the mobile home court didn't appear to suffer major damage from the floodwaters as of Thursday afternoon.

Homeowners with flooded basements weren't so lucky.

Todd and Amy Dughman had recently finished their basement in the new Twin Parks subdivision on Whitewood's southeast side. The storm on Wednesday delivered hail, rain and a flash flood.

The Dughmans checked their basement during the night and had no water. But 5-1/2 inches of rain fell in the early morning hours, their sump pump failed, and they found their basement carpet soaked at 6 a.m. Thursday, they said.

The Dughmans got some of the water out with a Shop-Vac, but a crew from Lloyd's Carpeting Cleaning arrived later to finish the job.

"I hope we can get it out without getting any mold," Todd said. "It can always be worse," he said.

Across the street, it was. Proving an old adage involving gravity and grim humor, Dughman said a neighbor's basement was flooded with water mixed with cow manure that had flowed from an uphill farm.

The flash flood on Wednesday also warped a section of the relatively new Yosemite Road in the Twin Parks subdivision. Trudy Williams' children didn't see it as a negative as they splashed in the warped street. "The kids said we have a roller coaster on our road," Williams said.

The heavy rains and floodwaters affected a variety of people.

Pat and Laura Halverson of Sterling, Ill., waited out the storm at Arby's in Spearfish. They weren't able to get their Harley-Davidson from their motel parking lot across the flooded Jackson Boulevard. "I don't have skis on this bike," Pat Halverson said.

"We've been watching it since quarter to seven this morning," Laura Halverson said about the weather. "This is crazy."

They'll have to wait another day, at least, before heading home.

A half-mile west of Whitewood on Thursday morning, floodwaters broke a dam about 40 feet from Fritz Wolff's home. "A 5-inch rain last night wiped out the whole dam," Wolff said. He said he wasn't concerned because his house sits above the dam.

Meanwhile, Thomson, the county emergency manager, hoped the rain would let up and Higgins Creek would subside enough so the stranded families on Pheasant Lane could get out.

Thomson said the flooding was similar to that of 1972 but not as bad as the flooding of 1965, when heavy rains came on top of a huge snow pack.

Thomson said the flooding this week damaged some roads and knocked out some culverts but caused no major damage. He said flooded basements are probably the worst damage.

Although the heavy rains are bringing relief from an eight-year drought, some residents admitted they'd like a break from the unusually soggy spring.

In Whitewood, Trudy Williamson watched four of her kids play in the water on the "roller coaster" Yosemite Road, grateful to get them outside for once during their summer vacation.

"I'm sick of them being in the house," she said.

Contact Steve Miller at 394-8417 or steve.miller@rapidcityjournal.com