Warning expires after parts of state see heavy rain, flash floods

Flooding outside Clarksville on Aug. 15, by Twitter user Mark Morgan.
Flooding outside Clarksville on Aug. 15, by Twitter user Mark Morgan.

A flood warning that had covered several central Arkansas counties after heavy rain moved through the area has expired, though two counties in the western part of the state will remain under that designation until later today, according to the National Weather Service.

Counties along the Arkansas River including Logan, Johnson, Van Buren, Cleburne, Conway, Faulkner, White, Yell and Pope were no longer under a flood warning as of 11:45 a.m., said meteorologist Jeff Hood.

Franklin County and Crawford County in the western part of the state will remain under a flood warning until 5:45 p.m., he said.

The Cache River near Patterson in Jackson and Woodruff counties was placed on a flood warning before Tuesday’s bout of precipitation, and that warning will continue through Sunday morning, Hood said.

As of 10 a.m., the river’s stage was 8.7 feet, according to the weather service’s most recent forecast. Flood stage for the river is 9 feet. It’s expected to top that amount early Thursday, Hood said.

EARLIER:

Several central and western Arkansas counties placed under a flash flooding warning Tuesday were deluged with multiple inches of rain Tuesday morning, and more was predicted to fall, according to the National Weather Service of Little Rock.

Logan, Johnson, Pope, Conway and Faulkner counties as well as parts of White, Lonoke and Pulaski counties were placed under a flash flood warning over a span of a couple hours Tuesday morning, said meteorologist Sean Clarke. Portions of Franklin, Crawford and Van Buren counties were placed on flash flood watch.

A storm system that pushed into the state stalled over the counties and is predicted to dump between 3 to 5 inches of rain before it moves on, Clarke said around 8:30 a.m. Many counties already experienced a few inches of rain before 7 a.m. Tuesday, he said.

Damascus, situated in Faulkner and Van Buren counties, saw the most precipitation. It had 7.2 inches so far, Clarke said.

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Russellville had about 4.3 inches of rain, and the weather service has gotten reports about flooding, Clarke said. No water rescues have been performed, he said. That area is flood-prone because there are numerous dips and ditches that fill up “pretty routinely,” he said.

Arkansas Tech University, located in Russellville, said in a tweet that the college was experiencing a flash flood and urged people to “observe emergency barricades” and “proceed with caution.”

Social media users across Arkansas posted photos of sheets of water surging across streets. Twitter user Mark Morgan shared a photo of floodwater lapping at a street pole while just the hood of a car was visible in the distance. He said the photo was taken in a subdivision outside Clarksville.

While some parts of central Arkansas will see significant rainfall, others will likely skirt the storm, Clarke said. The system is predicted to mostly avoid downtown Little Rock, he said.

The flood warnings will end over the next few hours. Rain is expected to let up around midday, Clarke said. For now, people should avoid driving through pools of water, he said. Most flood deaths occur in vehicles, the weather service noted on its website.

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