Half a year later, 6 Arkansas lakes dip to pre-flood level
By The Associated Press
This article was published October 21, 2011 at 11:50 a.m.
PHOTO BY AP/THE BAXTER BULLETIN / KEVIN PIEPER
Jim and Ellie Cooper of Mountain Home and other volunteers fill sandbags Tuesday in Cotter, where record water releases from Bull Shoals Dam threatened to flood homes and businesses.
Six northern Arkansas lakes swelled by heavy rains during the spring have fallen to pre-flood levels — six months after rising.
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers say Beaver, Bull Shoals, Clearwater, Greers Ferry, Norfork and Table Rock lakes captured 4 million acre-feet of water after up to 20 inches of rain fell in their basins. Releases from the Bull Shoals dam during May caused a 2 foot rise in the White River at Georgetown about 100 miles downstream.
Corps spokesman Laurie Driver says the government-operated lakes held as much water as they could.
It was initially estimated that the lakes would drop to pre-flood levels in November, but dry conditions made them fall faster.
River says the lakes and dams have prevented more than $1 billion in flood losses.
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