Tropical storm causes flash flooding in Arkansas

OKLAHOMA CITY — — Tropical Storm Hermine caused flash flooding in Arkansas and worry in Oklahoma on Tuesday as it moved north from Texas.

In northwest Arkansas, roads and a campground were flooded, but there were no injuries, as up to 5 inches of rain fell near Horsehead Lake in Johnson County, said Josh Johnston, the county emergency services manager.

A cold front that ran from the Great Lakes region to southern Missouri had “siphoned off” some of Hermine’s moisture, pulling it into Arkansas, said Charles Dalton, a National Weather Service meteorologist in North Little Rock. There was potential for at least minor flooding throughout the Ozarks, he said.

“How severe it would be, that’s hard to tell,” Dalton said. “It’s just a gradual rain, there probably will be several spots where there will be minor creek and stream overruns, but as for major street and road flooding, we’ll just have to watch and see.”

The bulk of the storm was expected to move into Oklahoma, where emergency managers, mindful of a tropical storm that caused extensive flooding and six deaths in 2007, were watching carefully.

The weather service issued a flash flood watch through Thursday morning for the western two-thirds of Oklahoma, except the far northwest and the Panhandle.

Hermine was not expected to produce as much rain as Tropical Storm Erin, which stalled over Kingfisher County in central Oklahoma three years ago and dumped 11 inches. Hermine was expected to bring up to 5 inches of rain, said Bruce Thoren, a weather service meteorologist in Norman.

“It looks to be large, it looks wet, and some areas really need it,” Thoren said. “But it looks like it’s just going to keep moving ... in terms of actually stalling, like the Kingfisher sit, it doesn’t appear like that’s going to happen.”

Gov. Brad Henry’s office tracking the storm and talking with emergency management officials, said Paul Sund, the governor’s spokesman.

“In a flooding situation, you can only do so much to prepare, just be sure people are aware,” Sund said.

Rain from Hermine began falling Tuesday morning in Bryan County in south-central Oklahoma, county Emergency Management Director James Dalton said.

The brunt of the storm was expected enter southwestern Oklahoma by 7 p.m. Wednesday, move into southern Kansas by Thursday morning and then go into Missouri, the meteorologists said.

Jackson County Emergency Management Director Jerry Gibson said everyone was “just kind of on standby.”

“Once it starts, if it does turn into a situation where we have flooded county roads, county workers will start going out and putting up barricades,” he said.

In Oklahoma City, Emergency Manager Frank Barnes said police, fire and public works crews were ready to respond, and residents should keep a close eye on conditions around them.

“People who live in or around a flood plain or flood prone area should be hyper vigilant this week and prepared to evacuate to high ground on short notice,” Barnes said.

In 2007, five people drowned when their vehicles were swept away by flood waters from Erin’s remnants, and a sixth drowned when she was trapped by rising water in the cellar of her home.

Central Oklahoma also experienced severe flooding in June when a series of slow moving thunderstorms developed south of Oklahoma City. No deaths were attributed to that storm.