UPDATED: Bush declares 35 counties federal disaster areas

By ArkansasOnline Press Services

President Bush issued a federal disaster declaration on Wednesday for 35 flood-hit counties in Arkansas.

His declaration clears the way for federal aid to supplement local and state efforts to recover from the rains and floods from earlier this month.

FEMA officials have fanned out across the state to assess the flood damage. More counties may qualify for help after those assessments are completed.

The counties listed in Bush's declaration are: Baxter, Benton, Boone, Carroll, Clay, Conway, Craighead, Crawford, Faulkner, Franklin, Fulton, Greene, Hot Spring, Howard, Independence, Izard, Jackson, Johnson, Lawrence, Logan, Madison, Marion, Nevada, Newton, Pope, Randolph, Scott, Searcy, Sharp, Stone, Van Buren, Washington, White, Woodruff, and Yel

Separately Wednesday, Gov. Mike Beebe added four more counties to the state disaster list, making 39 in all that have been declared disaster areas.

Cross, Monroe, Perry and Prairie counties are the latest to be included.

Previously declared counties include Baxter, Benton, Boone, Carroll, Clay, Conway, Crawford, Craighead, Faulkner, Franklin, Fulton, Greene, Hot Spring, Howard, Independence, Izard, Jackson, Johnson, Lawrence, Logan, Madison, Marion, Nevada, Newton, Pope, Randolph, Scott, Searcy, Sharp, Stone, Van Buren, Washington, White, Woodruff and Yell.

Heavy rains that began March 17 continued for days, inundating most of the state.

Hundreds of homes were damaged, and roads in at least 12 counties are still closed because of the flooding.

Residents in many areas aren't in the clear quite yet. The White and Mississippi rivers are expected to collide in the next few days, causing more trouble for southeast Arkansas, while forecasters were predicting a 50 percent chance of showers and thunderstorms hitting the Arkansas prairie by Friday.

Outside of Des Arc, water from the White River began springing up in new three places Wednesday along a rural levee north of Interstate 40. The day before, volunteers used sandbags to hold back the "sand boils" - muddy springs that develop when water passes underneath the earthen barriers.

Loy Hamilton, area commander for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers' effort on the White River, said workers used 50-gallon barrels to hold back the teapot-sized sand boils and build pressure to staunch the flow.

"Right now, they're all flowing clear, which is ideal," Hamilton said. "If you shut it off, it just forces it around to another hole."

Hamilton said the levee would remain under 24-hour watch as long as the waters remain high.

Monroe County Judge Larry Morris, chief administrator in the county of some 11,300 people, said he feared the flooding would cut off roads to the area. The county printed yellow-and-red flyers to distribute to residents, urging them to either evacuate or have enough food to last "at LEAST two weeks." Wheat farmers already were reporting damage from the water, Morris said.

Information for this article was contributed by John Gambrell of The Associated Press.