Heavy rainfall early Sunday caused flash flooding that forced more than 30 families in eastern Arkansas to evacuate their homes.
Chris Buonanno, an operations officer for the National Weather Service in North Little Rock, said thunderstorms were concentrated in an area that included parts of Woodruff, White, Prairie and Monroe counties.
"There was a combined area that we saw a lot of training," he said, referring to the phenomenon of thunderstorms repeating their patterns over the same area.
Buonanno said the area received between 6 and slightly more than 10 inches of rain.
Most of the rainfall occurred between midnight and 6 a.m.
Having so much rainfall in just six hours caused flash flooding, mostly in the eastern part of the state, said Yvette Smith, a spokesman for the Arkansas Department of Emergency Management.
Four homes in Monroe County were evacuated, Smith said.
Smith said the residents of all four homes were able to find family to stay with, and no emergency shelter was set up.
She said parts of U.S. 49, U.S. 70 and Arkansas 86 flooded in Monroe County. The roads were back open Sunday afternoon, according to a dispatcher with the Monroe County sheriff's office who declined to give her name.
West Memphis experienced the most evacuations, with residents of 17 homes being displaced.
Many of the city's roadways became impassable.
"The whole southwest section of West Memphis was flooded," Smith said. "They said there were too many roads to give me names."
First Baptist Church of West Memphis served as a temporary shelter Sunday where displaced people could call friends or family members to arrange a place to stay.
The shelter did not plan to stay open overnight Sunday, Smith said.
A temporary shelter was also opened Sunday in St. Francis County at the Forrest City Civic Center. Flooding displaced 10 families -- five near Crow Creek in Madison and five in the Stonebrook subdivision in Forrest City.
That shelter was not expected to remain open overnight either, Smith said.
At least six highways and almost all the county roads in St. Francis County flooded during the storm, Smith said. They were all back open by Sunday afternoon, said Alena Hillis, a dispatcher for the St. Francis County sheriff's office.
There were several roads still closed in White County on Sunday, said Rebecca Henry, a dispatcher for the White County sheriff's office.
In Prairie County, the northbound lane of Arkansas 11 was closed, according to a spokesman from the Prairie County sheriff's office who declined to give her name.
Officer Thomas Nevels of the Woodruff County sheriff's office said the office did not have a count of the number of roads that were closed Sunday afternoon.
"When it first started raining in the a.m. hours, a lot of the roads started closing," Nevels said. "I don't know if they're closed at this time."
Smith said the water is now starting to recede, and how quickly that happens will determine when the roads reopen.
Buonanno said there might be some scattered rainfall around the state in the next couple of days, but it should be brief.
Metro on 06/30/2014