Rising water closes I-40

LITTLE ROCK — With stretches of the Mississippi River forecast to reach historic highs, cities and towns along its banks and tributaries in Arkansas are preparing for some of the worst flooding on record.

Highway officials Wednesday took the unprecedented step of closing part of Interstate 40 where it crosses the White River near Des Arc because of water overflowing the roadway.

The stretch of Interstate 40 from Little Rock to Memphis is one of the nation’s most heavily traveled truck corridors.

“It will [cause] a significant delay in the shipping of goods,” Lane Kidd, president of the Arkansas Trucking Association, said of the flooded interstate.

Residents of Des Arc and DeValls Bluff in Prairie County have stacked bags of sand around homes and businesses. All they can do now is wait as the water rises.

Officials found the body of a man Wednesday morning outside Des Arc, raising the death toll for this week’s flooding to two, with at least one other person missing.

On Wednesday afternoon, Gov. Mike Beebe toured parts of Prairie County, where at least 100 homes had already flooded. He urged residents in the evacuation zones who had not yet left to do so immediately.

“Heed the warnings,” he said. “Leave now.”

‘REAL INCONVENIENCE’

Floodwaters from the White River reached I-40 near mile marker 202, state Highway and Transportation Department spokesman Glenn Bolick said.

At 3:30 p.m. Wednesday, the Highway Department closed the last westbound lane on I-40.

Officials said they wanted to keep the eastbound lanes open as long as possible but that the closure of those was imminent.

That segment of the interstate will remain closed until the end of the week, he added.

Westbound traffic is being detoured at Brinkley onto U.S. 49 north to Fair Oaks, then onto U.S. 64 west to Bald Knob, and then to U.S. 67-167 south to Little Rock.

Eastbound traffic is exiting at Hazen onto U.S. 63 to Stuttgart, then onto U.S. 165 to DeWitt and onto Arkansas 1 to Marvell.

At that point, motorists can take U.S. 49 north to Brinkley, Arkansas 1 to Forrest City or U.S. 49 to Helena-West Helena. Part of U.S. 70 also was closed Wednesday.

Flooding south of the interstate forced the complicated detours for eastbound traffic, Bolick said.

“It’s going to be a real inconvenience,” he added.

Wednesday was the first time that Arkansas has closed a portion of I-40.

As rush hour approached, Arkansas State Police troopers monitored water levels on the eastbound side.

Detour signs were in place.

Transportation officials assured Beebe that for as long as possible they would accommodate the many trucks carrying in sand to flood threatened cities.

The problem with highway flooding isn’t just the level of the water but what is happening beneath it, Bolick said. He warned motorists to avoid any stretch of road that is covered by water.

“We can’t even guarantee there’s roadway there.”

Regional flooding extended the delivery routes of carriers such as Knoll Feed Transportation of Stuttgart, which transports bulk feed.

“We’re dodging flooded areas,” John Knoll, president and chief executive officer, said Wednesday afternoon. “We had to send a driver 100 miles out of the way.”

Knoll said he’s bracing for flood-related disruptions to continue over the next week.

ABF Freight System Inc. reported some disruptions Wednesday but said trucks had been rerouted.

“In all of these cases, our network is flexible enough to allow us to work around any delays that we experience,” David Humphrey, a spokesman for Arkansas Best Corp., wrote in an e-mail.

SANDBAGGING

In hard-hit Prairie County, where the White River is at an all-time high, Beebe stopped in Des Arc to thank workerswho were filling sandbags Wednesday.

“We appreciate what you’re doing here,” Beebe said outside an auto-parts store near the flooded intersection at Arkansas 38 and Arkansas 11.

Water from the White River had reached waist high there by Wednesday afternoon.

“We have gotten used to disasters. Our people will stick together and help each other because that’s what we do,” he said.

Nearby, volunteers and city workers constructed an earthen dam to protect businesses along Main Street. Davis Bell, spokesman for the Prairie County Office of Emergency Services, said he expected the downtown area to stay dry.

Volunteers from the Lakeside Missionary Baptist Church served lunch to workers who kept a steady stream of sandbags flowing into the city.

Church member Becky Johnson said the eastern part of her community “looks like an ocean.”

She and others consoled a fellow church member who has lost her home and everything she owned.

“I didn’t have any flood insurance,” the woman said. She asked not to be identified as her eyes welled with tears. Several women wrapped their arms around her.

“Just pray for us,” Johnson said.

In all, about 70 homes had flooded there, mostly east of the city, Bell said.

The White River at Des Arc was at 37.2 feet Wednesday, the National Weather Service said. Flood stage there is 24 feet. The river is expected to crest near 38 feet Monday.

The crest record of 37.4 feet was set in 1949.

Highway officials also closed the U.S. 70 bridge at DeValls Bluff, Mayor Kenny Anderson said.

“Des Arc is going through a lot right now,” said Tabitha Clarke, a hydrologist with the National Weather Service in North Little Rock. “We’re looking at stages that have never been hit before - that even makes it hard for the [weather] models to try to figure out” what will happen.

One flood-related death was reported in Des Arc on Wednesday, Sheriff Gary Burnett said.

Prairie County Deputy Coroner Leon Moon identified the man as 53-year-old David White, The Associated Press reported. His body was found about 75 yards from his home in the North Side community, Moon said.

About 20 miles downriver in DeValls Bluff, evacuations continued as water rose.

MISSISSIPPI AND OHIO RIVERS

Flood worries that prompted the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to blast open a Missouri levee early this week to ease pressure on some towns upstream are now rippling down the Mississippi River.

Breaching the levee likely saved Cairo, Ill., a town of about 2,800 residents where the Mississippi and Ohio rivers converge, officials said.

Within hours, the Ohio River at Cairo had dropped to 60 feet, about a foot and a half lower than it was before the levee was opened.

But, water flowing through the breached levee flooded 130,000 acres in the spillway’s basin. Resident Joe Harrison noticed the effects in Kentucky.

He said floodwaters from the Mississippi River turned his house into an island, high enough to remain dry but surrounded by water. He has been using a boat to get to his car, which is safely parked down the highway, the AP reported.

“I’ve never seen it this bad,” the 78-year-old said, according to the AP.

Flooding is possible for weeks to come along the Mississippi River, as high water makes its way downstream, officials said.

Officials said Memphis, where the Mississippi River was at 43.8 feet Tuesday, could see a near-record crest of 48 feet next Wednesday, just inches lower than the record of 48.7 feet in 1937.

Emergency officials in Shelby County estimated that 5,300 homes and businesses will likely be affected, the AP reported.

The Mississippi River is expected to crest May 12 at Helena-West Helena and farther south in the following days. Forecasters predicted record water levels at Vicksburg and Natchez in Mississippi, at New Madrid and Caruthersville in Missouri, and at Tiptonville in Tennessee.

Forecasters said that in Mississippi, the river could break records set during catastrophic floods in 1927 and a decade later.

Water from the Mississippi River is causing back flow into the White and Black rivers, preventing the smaller rivers from draining, said the weather service’s Clarke.

“Until the Mississippi goes down, we’re going to continue to see issues,” Clarke said.

‘BIG LAKE’

White County Judge Michael Lincoln said emergency workers evacuated four additional people from the isolated Georgetown community Wednesday not because they were in danger but because they were tired of being stranded.

People can no longer drive into or out of that community of roughly 200 residents because Arkansas 36 is “probably 6 feet underwater” because of the rising White River, Lincoln said.

Rescue workers drove to West Point, about 10 miles from Georgetown, then took an hour-long boat ride to Georgetown, Lincoln said.

“You’d better have plenty of gas and be bundled up” because it gets cold traveling across the floodwater-covered farmland.

Clarke said the White River there is rising slowly. As of Wednesday afternoon, it had reached 32.7 feet - one-tenth of a foot from the record high - and is expected to crest at 34.5 feet Sunday.

“It’s like a big lake out there,” she said. “It’s just going to be a slow, slow process.”

WATER RECALL

While people across the state were dealing with flooding, some bottled water ordered for flood relief efforts in Clinton has been recalled, officials with the Arkansas Department of Health said.

Officials said the water is contaminated with mold that can be hazardous for people with weakened immune systems. The Mountain Pure drinking-water company voluntarily recalled a lot of the 16.9-ounce bottles.

Affected plastic bottles are etched with the military time codes 2200 through 0400. Also included is an expiration date code that says either “Best By 2-27-2013 MPWA” or “Best By 2-28-2013 MPWA.” Information for this article was contributed by Evie Blad, Kenneth Heard, Cathy Frye, Laurie Whalen and Debra Hale-Shelton of the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette; and by The Associated Press.