NLR dreaming of a dry Christmas

Floodwaters force six home evacuations, boat trips to dinner

Larry Thurston, who has difficulty walking, is evacuated Saturday after he reported 2 feet of floodwater in his house on North G Street in the Dixie Addition of North Little Rock on Saturday. North Little Rock firefighters (left to right) Capt. Bo Buford, Michael Sanchez (hidden by Buford) and Greg Brown pulled the boat.
Larry Thurston, who has difficulty walking, is evacuated Saturday after he reported 2 feet of floodwater in his house on North G Street in the Dixie Addition of North Little Rock on Saturday. North Little Rock firefighters (left to right) Capt. Bo Buford, Michael Sanchez (hidden by Buford) and Greg Brown pulled the boat.

— For the second time in 20 years, some folks in North Little Rock’s Dixie Addition had to use boats to get to Christmas dinner.

“They pulled the boats up right here, tied them up and came in for Christmas dinner,” Fannie Mitchell said pointing to the railing on the concrete steps of her home at 1020 G St. “The water came up to the first step.”

She was one of the lucky ones who could still cook because her home wasn’t flooded.

North Little Rock Fire Department Capt. Beau Buford said firefighters evacuated six homes in the Dixie Addition on Saturday.

“We only had one person to call us but, after that, we waded through knee-deep water and went to every house that was flooded,” he said.

The National Weather Service reports that storms dumped 9.6 inches of rain on the state between Wednesday and Friday during what has been the wettest year on record for the Little Rock area.

The saturated soil and heavy rain led to flooding that closed down parts of roadways around the state. The Arkansas Highway and Transportation Department reported Saturday that as of 4:31 p.m., parts of 22 roadways remained under water.

photo

Contributed by Ruth Scroggin

Flooding on Highway 67/167 between Jacksonville and Cabot, Thursday.

The Dixie Addition is several blocks east along Broadway from Verizon Arena. G Street was hardest hit with many vehicles, including fullsize pickups and sport utility vehicles, in water up to their cabs. Some homes had 6 inches or more of water.

“Twenty years ago we had a flood down through here,” said Ellis Martin, as he stopped to chat with Mitchell’s son Dwight and share damage assessments. He said he had ankle-deep water in his home half a block away. “I couldn’t get out yesterday. If there’d been one more day of rain, I’d say most everybody would have to get out of Dixie.”

Firefighters used boats Thursday to rescue about two-dozen people in flooded areas near East 17th Street and Hazel Street in North Little Rock

Crews rescue flooded NLR residents

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North Little Rock Mayor Patrick Hays said Saturday afternoon that he’d been touring the flooded areas.

“It’s hard to assess the true nature of the damage until the areas under water are acceptable to drive. I can only go so far in my little Honda Civic,” he said. “Once we have assessed the damage, I will be contacting state and federal officials to see if any assistance is available. We will do everything we can for our residents.”

He also said he’d never seen such flooding in his 10 years at City Hall.

“This has been surprising,” he said. “When I was out [Friday], the Arkansas River was high but not that high I thought. In the past the water has gone down with some speed. I was concerned that there may have been some malfunction of our stormwater system that might have contributed to it.

“I was just on the phone with the manager of our streets department [Patrick Lane], and he assured me that everything is working properly,” Hays said. “If there was a problem, I wanted to make sure it got tended to, but there hasn’t been a problem. There are just times when we get too much water in too short a period. I think we’re about2 feet above the wettest year we’ve had before now.”

The National Weather Service reports that in a typical year, the Little Rock area sees about 50 inches of rain but had gotten nearly 82 inches of rain through Saturday.

“I’ve lived here for 19 years, and I’ve never seen anything like this,” Sally Medley said. “A month ago some of the streets flooded, but the water was gone the next day.”

Dorothy Hickman said she and her husband Adolph Hickman fled their home at 1111 G St. on Christmas Eve. They were loading things into a white van parked near Mitchell’s home Saturday.

“There’s so much water in our house,” she said. “We got flooded another Christmas in 1989. We’ll see what the insurance company says. I just thank God that we’re living.”

Sally Medley said her home at 1003 D St. was surrounded by water but had not flooded yet.

She said the high water kept them inside on Christmas day, and she was ready to get out of the house for a bit. So, Herman Johnson, who lives with her, put on rain boots and loaded Medley and her 6-year-old grandson Warren into a flat-bottomed boat and pulled them to Douglas Avenue, where they hopped into a car with her daughter April Medley.

Before they drove away, Johnson loaded several colorfully wrapped Christmas gifts into the boat.

As they drove away, he towed the boat and bounty across the flooded street.

Northwest Arkansas, Pages 24 on 12/27/2009

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