LITTLE ROCK — Relentless, record-setting rain flooded homes and countless roads in Arkansas and shut down part of Interstate 30 on Christmas Eve, stranding holiday travelers.
“I just told my mom that I wasn’t going to make it for Christmas. She started crying,” said motorist Misty Luce of Sugar Land, Texas, who had been stuck on the interstate near Alexander for more than five hours. “We’ve gone one mile.”
With about 8 inches of rain falling in Little Rock over a 48-hour period, the city shattered an 1882 record for its wettestyear.
As of 4 p.m. Thursday, rainfall for 2009 in Little Rock totaled 81.57 inches. The 127-year-old record was 75.54 inches.
“We crushed it,” National Weather Service senior forecaster Joe Goudsward said.
The rain was part of a large storm system that stretched from Texas and Louisiana to Minnesota. Thunderstorms and tornadoes hit cities on the warmer side of the front.
side of the front.
On the backside of the storm, a cold front triggered snow and blizzards.
Snow is expected to reach parts of Arkansas - possibly up to 10 inches in Northwest Arkansas but just a dusting in and around Little Rock, said meteorologist David Jankowski with the National Weather Service.
Along with an almost-certain blanket of snow, he said, the storm is expected to trigger wind gusts up to 30 mph that will push wind chills in the northwest into the single digits today.
Though officials in that region are preparing for weather-related problems, they’re also excited.
“I’m looking forward to a white Christmas,” said Ruthanne Hill, director of the Red Cross of Northwest Arkansas.
EVACUATIONS, STANDSTILLS
The most problems - and the most rain - were in central Arkansas. In some areas, water forced people to leave their homes.
Firefighters going house to house in small boats evacuated about 15 people from several square blocks of the Dark Hollow neighborhood of North Little Rock to a temporary shelter at a nearby community center, said fire Capt. Bobby Higden.
The shelter closed Thursday afternoon once displaced residents found places to stay.
Firefighters gave 87-year old Autree McCall time to pack a suitcase.
“I thought it was a leak in the bathroom,” McCall said of the water that began spreading through her home. “I didn’t think it had rained enough, but there it was.”
Her children planned to drive in from Texas.
“I don’t know what I’m going to do,” she said, “I really don’t.”
Emma Gray, 61, whom firefighters also evacuated, was hoping to return to her home at 1700 N. Beech St. in time for Christmas today. To underscore her optimism, she left the Christmas Day turkey to thaw in the kitchen sink.
“It didn’t get in my home the last time [during heavy October rains],” she said. “It got in my house this time. It went in every room.”
Gray tried to pick things up off the floor. No presents were under the Christmas tree, though, because she planned to wrap gifts Thursday.
Meanwhile, others stayed put. By midmorning, the water was lapping along the front porch steps of Charles Brown’s home at East 14th and North Walnut.
“It was like this back in October,” the 50-year-old lifelong Dark Hollow resident said. “This is nothing new to us. Years ago, 20 years ago, it use to flood a way lot more.”
McCall also said the area was less prone to flooding now.
“It’s better than it used to be, but they still haven’t done what they needed to do,” she said.
North of Jacksonville, rescuers used flat-bottomed boats to reach people at four houses near John Harden Road and Lancelot Lane, near U.S. 67/167. One resident had been using a bulldozer to repair a levee behind his house when he became surrounded by water.
“I’ve lived here all my life, and I’ve never seen anything like it,” said John Dobbins, assistant chief of the North Pulaski Fire Department.
In southwest Little Rock, motorists gingerly guided their vehicles through waters splashing above their bumpers on Stagecoach Road near Otter Creek on Thursday morning.
The flooding forced the evacuation of five homes off Stagecoach Road, said Randy Hickmon, a Little Rock Fire Department captain.
Fourche Creek, which normally glides along the south side of Otter Creek Park, was backed up in the park entrance and cascaded over Stagecoach Road. Tributaries of the same stream caused flooding that closed Interstate 30.
The sale of road maps increased greatly Thursday at the Arkadelphia Shell Food Mart on Interstate 30, said owner Shahid “Ike” Iqbal, as motorists sought alternative routes to avoid the flooded highway farther north.
“Everyone is asking for other ways to go,” Iqbal said. “I’m not familiar with the roads around here. I’d tell them to Go 30.’”
Donna Worrell, manager of Shepherd’s Quick Stop on Interstate 30 and Pine Street in Arkadelphia, said talk of the weather filled her store. She said at least five people who stopped at her store said their vehicles struck potholes on the interstate near Benton, causing flat tires.
“They’re all griping about it,” she said. “We’ve had a lot of Christmas travelers who are tired of the rain.”
INTERSTATE 30
High water forced the Arkansas Highway and Transportation Department to close two miles of Interstate 30, a major corridor between Little Rock and Dallas.
The closure between the Otter Creek and County Line exits lasted from 3 a.m. until about 1:30 p.m.
Three lanes in each direction were closed, as were the frontage roads and a major alternative route, Arkansas 5, known in Little Rock as Stagecoach Road.
Randy Ort, who has more freeway, the frontage roads and Highway 5 to be closed at the same time. This was a very extraordinary circumstance.”
The rain also forced closures on numerous sections of state highway throughout the state, including a section U.S. 67/167 between Jacksonville and Cabot.
Motorists inundated the Highway Department with telephone calls about the interstate closure. Some suggested the department should use pumps, Ort said.
“The problem is there is no place for the water to go,” he said.
Luce, the motorist from Sugar Land, Texas, who was stuck on the interstate, said she and her boyfriend, Patrick Farris, loaded two storage tubs with presents, put them in the back seat and left their home near Houston about 1 p.m. Wednesday. But strong thunderstorms and winds forced the couple to stop in Texarkana for the night.
Wanting to avoid traffic so they could make it to Luce’s sister’s house in Carbondale, Ill., the couple was on Interstate 30 by 5 a.m. Thursday.
By 7:15 a.m., the interstate resembled a parking lot.
“It sucks, excuse my French,” Luce said. “We saw that there were flood watches, but we didn’t think Interstate 30 would be completely closed.”
Just behind Luce and her boyfriend, Jo Lynne Varner sat in her car.
Varner, an office administrator at Little Rock Pediatric Clinic, left after 7 a.m. for work from home in Saline County. She stopped at a Starbucks for coffee and then pulled onto the interstate. By 7:30 a.m., traffic was at a standstill, and she hadn’t even made it to Pulaski County yet.
From her BlackBerry, Varner texted friends and family and posted updates about her predicament on Facebook.
“I made a joke this morning that I wished I had an ark,” said Varner, who never made it to work Thursday. “It never dawned on me that I’d actually need one.” Information for this article was contributed by Andrew Davis and Richard Massey of the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette.
Front Section, Pages 1 on 12/25/2009