Two rivers' crests raise hope of waters receding

Arkansans relieved, face daunting cleanup

About 2 feet of water flooded the first floor of Eddy Sanders’ home on Holiday Road in Island Harbor Estates in Pine Bluff on Thursday. See more photos at arkansasonline.com/galleries.
About 2 feet of water flooded the first floor of Eddy Sanders’ home on Holiday Road in Island Harbor Estates in Pine Bluff on Thursday. See more photos at arkansasonline.com/galleries.

The Arkansas River continued cresting farther downstream from Little Rock, and the Red River in the southwest corner of the state reached its highest levels Thursday, giving residents along each river hope that the waters will begin subsiding.

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Arkansas Democrat-Gazette

A home in Island Harbor Estates in Pine Bluff sits in floodwaters from the Arkansas River.

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Arkansas Democrat-Gazette

Eddy Sanders surveys a neighbor’s flooded property while boating to his house Thursday in Island Harbor Estates in Pine Bluff.

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Arkansas Democrat-Gazette

Joe Lowe looks out over his backyard in Wright, where a boat ramp and porch have flooded, although his wife and friends placed sandbags around their home to keep the water at bay.

"This is a great sign," said Michelle Richardson, a worker with the Miller County Office of Emergency Management. "It was always a wonder of how high the river would go. Once it hit the crest, we could breathe a sigh of relief."

In Fulton, the Red River crested at 32.1 feet Thursday evening. It will gradually recede, and National Weather Service hydrologists expect it to drop to 29.7 feet by Tuesday. Flood stage there is 29 feet.

The Miller County city of Garland is protected by a levee on the west side of the river and remains dry, Richardson said. However, acres of farmland and several businesses inside the levee remained submerged under several feet of water Thursday, she said.

Teams placed sandbags around leaks in the levees south of Garland on Tuesday and Wednesday to ensure they wouldn't erode, Richardson said. There were about 40 "sand boils," or seepage of river water and levee soil, repaired this week.

"They are still holding steady," she said. "We're going to be good."

Still, the Red River raged on. In Index, because of rapidly flowing water, Little River County deputies postponed a search for a Texarkana man believed missing in the river, a spokesman for the sheriff's office said Thursday.

Family members reported Dugan Ward, 28, missing on May 27, when he and his parents went to check their property along the river.

Richardson said emergency workers compared this flooding with that of 1990, when the Red River reached 34.4 feet on May 12 that year and flooded thousands of acres of farmland and homes.

"At first, we worried this would be worse than 1990," she said. "Then as the river rose, we waited and wondered. Now, we're seeing it's not as bad as 1990, and that's a blessing."

In Perry County, workers will begin repairing about 150 yards of broken levee near Breezewood Road as soon as Arkansas River floodwaters recede. Water topped over a low spot last week and began eroding the 8-foot tall levee, causing more flooding in Toad Suck, said Ann Offield, the coordinator for the Perry County Office of Emergency Management.

"Toad Suck had flooding during that first crest of the [Arkansas] River, and when the levee broke, it flooded again," she said.

Offield said the eastern side of Perry County -- which is mostly farmland -- remained under water Thursday. A couple of homeowners reported water inside their homes, she said.

"We can't get to some areas, so we don't know how bad it is," Offield said. "We plan on going out Monday, when the water is down enough."

In Pine Bluff, the river crested Thursday at 45.9 feet, less than 7 feet from the 52.1 feet high mark set there on May 28, 1943. Flood stage in the Jefferson County town is 42 feet.

More than 200 homes had water in them Thursday, said Wesley Hunt, a worker with the Jefferson County Office of Emergency Management.

"We've got some homes with waist-deep water in them and others with 6 feet of water," Hunt said. "It's devastating for so many people.

"We're ready for this to bring a crest so we can begin the rebuilding process."

The Arkansas River at Pine Bluff is forecast to linger around 45.5 feet through today and then begin dropping. By Monday evening, it should dip to 41.6 feet, the weather service predicts.

Jim Thomas has endured the three weeks of flooding at his home at Island Harbor Marina. More than 6 feet of water is in the public restrooms at his boat marina, and up to 10 feet of water covers other areas of his property.

"It's terrible," he said. "It'll cost thousands and thousands of dollars and hundreds of hours of manpower to clean this up.

"I'm 500 yards away from the river, and at night I can hear it still roaring," he said. "It literally sounds like the Niagara Falls."

He said several travel trailers are floating in his parking lot, and trucks have water "up to their windshields" in other areas. Thomas said he has also seen numerous snakes slither up to his marina docks to get out of the water.

"I'd say boating season is shot for the month of June in Pine Bluff," he said. "It will take a long while to recover."

Kerry Krell, a spokesman for the Arkansas Department of Health, said people should watch for snakes and other animals when returning to their homes now that waters are beginning to recede.

"Just like people, animals are displaced," she said. "Sometimes homes are the best places for them to relocate."

She said those with flooded homes should use a mixture of a quarter cup of bleach to a gallon of water to clean mold and mildew left behind. They also should wear boots, gloves and respiratory masks with a safety rating of N-95, which filters tiny particles of mold, she said.

"This is an important piece of equipment," she said of the mask. "You should avoid all contamination with floodwater."

The lowering waters also are helping Central Arkansas Water crews repair a broken 30-inch water main that cracked May 27 because of flooding, spokesman John Tynan said. The break caused a drop in water pressure for homes along Maumelle Boulevard in Maumelle. Crews quickly made repairs to restore pressure but will assess damage now that the river level is dropping.

In Chicot County, crews for a short-track rail between Arkansas and Louisiana will begin repairing a washed-out railroad bed that was damaged by flash flooding last week, said the county judge for Chicot County, Mack Bayou. Rapid waters from a bayou near Dermott damaged the rock railroad bed, rendering it impassable, he said.

Flash flooding also damaged trails and roads in the Erbie area of the Buffalo National River near Jasper, said Keith Jefferson, a park ranger. Several thunderstorms last week washed away the Compton-Erbie Road from the Hideout Hallow Trailhead to the first water crossing. The Erbie Campground and the Parker-Hickman Homestead is open, but park visitors should expect rough roads, he said.

"We're assessing major erosion damage from flash flooding [Thursday]," Jefferson said. "The storms didn't last long, but they dumped a lot of water."

Clear skies have remained through the week in the state, aiding in receding the water, said National Weather Service meteorologist Julie Lesko.

In May, 18 Arkansas cities recorded the wettest month in their histories. The 24.46 inches of rainfall that landed in Big Fork in Polk County was the most rain recorded in any month in the state.

Between May 7 and May 31, Little Rock recorded only five days without precipitation.

Up to 20 inches of rain fell in eastern Oklahoma and Texas, as well, last month, filling reservoirs there. Those reservoirs overflowed into the Arkansas and Red River basins, causing the long-term flooding.

The state could see a slight chance of rain this weekend, Lesko said, but any rainfall won't be significant.

"I don't think we'll see the amount of rain necessary to cause the rivers to go back up," she said.

State Desk on 06/05/2015

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