While driving his girlfriend to work about 5 a.m. Thursday, Jason Neil saw what appeared to be a “little puddle” across Arkansas 127 near Garfield.
He pumped the pickup’s brakes to slow down, but it was too late.
“I hit the brakes, then we were in the water,” said Neil. “Our truck was floating. It was 12 feet deep, maybe 15. My girlfriend said, ‘The water is coming in.’ I rolled the windows down and looked outside, and the water was about an inch below the window. My girlfriend said, ‘What do we do?’ I said, ‘Get out.’ She said, ‘Seriously?’ I said, ‘Get out!’”
Neil said his 2004 Ford F-150 pickup sank in a few seconds.
Neil of Garfield and his girlfriend Melissa Farriester of Rogers stood in the bed of the truck making cellphone calls and waiting for help. The water rose above their waists and remained at that level until rescuers arrived about 30 minutes later, said Farriester, who called her employer from the truckbed to say she wouldn’t be at work.
That was one of eight swift-water rescues in Benton County on Thursday morning, said Brandon Morris, a spokesman for the Arkansas Department of Emergency Management.
Heavy rain early Thursday caused flash flooding in parts of Northwest Arkansas, southwest Missouri and northeast Oklahoma, according to the National Weather Service.
The Associated Press reported that there was one fatality, near Jane, Mo., when the rain-swollen Brush Creek swept a woman’s car away. Also, 15 people camping on the Elk River near Noel, Mo., had to be rescued, and floodwaters damaged more than 100 buildings in Hollister, Mo.
Most of the swift-water rescues in Arkansas were handled by the Northeast Benton County Volunteer Fire Department, with assistance from the Rogers Fire Department.
“Everything went well considering the situation,” said Rod Taylor, chief of the northeast Benton County department, which has about 25 volunteers. “We were just strung out all over everywhere.”
The National Weather Service predicted more rain Thursday night for Northwest Arkansas, with amounts that could add an inch to totals by early morning. Another inch of rain could fall during the day today, primarily before 1 p.m., according to the weather service.
BRANSON AIRPORT DELUGE
The most rainfall Thursday was recorded at the Branson Airport, about 2 miles north of the Arkansas state line.
The airport had 8 inches of rain in the 24-hour period that ended at 7 a.m. Thursday. The airport got 3.96 inches in one hour, from 2-3 a.m., said David Gaede, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Springfield, Mo.
In Arkansas, Garfield had the most rain with 6.61 inches during that same 24-hour period. Bella Vista was next with 6.24 inches.
Mike Teague, a meteorologist for the National Weather Service in Tulsa, said parts of Northwest Arkansas may have gotten 8 inches of rain. He said there were pockets of intense rain from the storms, which seemed to track along the Arkansas-Missouri state line.
“These are just really intense thunderstorms,” he said. “Pockets of 7 or maybe even close to 8 inches wouldn’t be out of the realm of possibility for sure. There’s just not a gauge on every street corner.”
David Nilles, a spokesman for the Arkansas Highway and Transportation Department, said sections of two state highway were closed for part of the day Thursday because of flooding. Arkansas 127 near Garfield was closed from early morning until 11:30 a.m. Thursday. Arkansas 187 between Holiday Island and Busch in Carroll County was closed until 4:08 p.m., Nilles said.
Several roads and bridges were closed Thursday in Benton County because of flooding. Benton County Judge Robert Clinard issued an emergency disaster declaration, and damage estimates were underway.
THE BRIDGE MOVED
Teague said he’d had reports that there may have been 6 to 8 inches of rain in Carroll County near the towns of Oak Grove and Blue Eye, but the weather service has nobody in that area reporting official totals.
Nick Samac, director of emergency management for Carroll County, said there was one swift-water rescue when a woman’s car stalled in high water on a bridge on Arkansas 187. The woman suffered only bruising but the bridge was washed away, he said.
“She got out when it started moving, swam a ways from the vehicle and held on to a tree,” said Samac.
Dorothy Vernon Crookshank of Eureka Springs posted a message on her Facebook page saying: “Guess where I spent my early morning hours? Hanging on to a tree above the flood waters outside Eureka!” She also posted a link to a story about the rescue in the Lovely County Citizen, a Eureka Springs weekly newspaper.
It took a couple of hours for rescuers from the Carroll County Special Operations Rescue Team, the Holiday Island Fire Department and the Carroll County sheriff’s office to reach her, said Samac.
There was also flooding on Main Street in Eureka Springs, he said.
At midafternoon Thursday, the Eureka Springs Chamber of Commerce sent out an email saying: “Railway Winery has lost their wines and tanks and equipment, and their vines. They were washed away with the flooding this morning. They have started looking downstream for tanks and debris but have not been able to locate anything yet. If you find them, please call Greg. “CREEKS GO UP
According to the U.S. Geological Survey, the water levelin some Northwest Arkansas creeks jumped dramatically early Thursday. At Osage Creek near Elm Springs, the level went from 2 feet to about 15 feet. Near Omaha (Boone County) on Bear Creek, the level increased from 2 to 17 feet.
“It doesn’t take a lot of water to wash a car off the road,” Robert McGowen, emergency management director for Benton County, said Thursday in a news release. “More deaths occur due to flooding than from any other thunderstorm related hazard and many of these occur in vehicles. So please, turn around, don’t drown.”
The Highway Department’s Nilles said 6 feet of water covered parts Arkansas 127 early Thursday but the ditch on either side of the highway is about 6 feet lower than the highway, so estimate of 12 feet of water by Neil, the driver of the submerged pickup, could be correct.
Neil said he has advice for anyone who finds himself in a submerged vehicle: “Don’t panic, and roll the windows down first thing.”
“We couldn’t open the truck doors,” Neil said. “As soon as she said water is coming in the door, I rolled down the windows. You don’t have long to get out.”
Farriester said she had locked her keys in the car Thursday morning, so Neil gave her a ride in his pickup. If she had been in her car alone, Farriester said, she wouldn’t have known what to do.
“I pretty much was in shock,” she said. “I panicked, I really did. I was pretty much frozen sitting there.”
After the rescue, Neil said he shed his drenched clothes because of fear of hypothermia, called his mother for a ride and soon found himself standing in the parking lot of a Dollar General store in Rogers wearing nothing but a pink towel and holding an umbrella.
“After hearing the story as to why I was standing in the parking lot in a towel, the manager invited me to come in and go to the back until they could find me some clothes I could buy,” he said.
Front Section, Pages 1 on 08/09/2013