VINITA, Okla. — Just under ten inches of rain fell across Craig County, leaving isolated flash flooding concerns for residents.
While people were safe, some people's property suffered costly damage. John Coats is one of them.
WATCH: CARS UNDERWATER: Flash flooding
“Woke up, looked outside, seen that my car was about half underwater," said Coats.
He described his wake-up call on Aug. 28 as a 'rude awakening.'
He lives on Sunset Dr., and said it's been a problem area for years, but this is the first time he's been seriously impacted.
"Flooding down the street and it was up in my car and the floorboards were wet, it was full of water," Coats said. "My stepson’s car was flooded, it was full of water, anything in the floorboards was floating. I didn’t even know it was even supposed to rain."
They're a big car family, so Coats said this loss hurt.
Both the 2023 Challenger Scat Pack and the 2014 Mustang GT were not even theirs for a year.
“Kind of felt helpless just sitting there watching it, poor thing, sitting there underwater," said Coats. "But like I said, it’s just a car."
Beyond the water damage, Coats called on the city to take action to alleviate the ongoing flood issue on their street.
They shared a video with 2 News Oklahoma's Stef Manchen from Nov. 2024, showing the street underwater yet again, and only going down once Coats' step-son manually cleared out the drainage system.
“I would like to see if Vinita is going to do something about the drainage system over here," said Coats. "It’s kinda getting to be a nuisance and eventually it’s going to get into people’s houses."
They wait now on insurance adjusters to lay out next steps and to see what, if anything, can be salvaged.
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