As historic crests along the Arkansas River move downstream from Fort Smith, some Arkansans may be seeing light at the end of the tunnel, officials say, but floodwaters are likely to linger for awhile, even where the river has finally begun to fall.
Faulkner County officials were briefed Sunday morning via teleconference as emergency officials from all counties affected by flooding gave status updates for their counties, beginning with a briefing by the National Weather Service.
Dennis Cavanaugh, warning coordination meteorologist, provided updated information for the 15 Arkansas counties being subjected to flooding by the Arkansas River.
All locations of the river are still in major flood stage, according to the meteorologist.
“We still have quite a bit of water moving down the Arkansas River,” Cavanaugh said. “That said, it doesn’t look like things are getting significantly worse.”
Cavanaugh said, as of Sunday morning, there had been no reported major levee breaches in the previous 24 hours.
“That is due to some truly heroic efforts by local, county and state officials, and the Arkansas National Guard, all up and down the Arkansas River,” he said. “The water continues to put a lot of pressure on the levees but at least we haven’t heard of any letting go.”
Cavanaugh reported that the Arkansas River level at Van Buren was at 39.7 feet at 8 a.m. Sunday and was beginning to fall. At Ozark, he said, the river elevation was at 374.9 feet above sea level and holding steady. Flood stage at Ozark is 357 feet.
At Dardanelle, the river level was expected to rise another tenth of an inch Sunday. At Morrilton, Cavanaugh said, the river level at 8 a.m. was one-tenth of an inch above the projected crest of 42.6 feet, forecast for later in the day.
At Toad Suck, he reported the river level was is only expected to rise another two-tenths of an inch, to 285 feet before cresting on Monday.
“That’s a foot lower than we expected yesterday,” he said, “so we’re finally beginning to see some semblance of good news coming out of the Arkansas River.”
He said Little Rock was a half-foot below the expected crest of 29 feet, forecast for sometime on Monday.
At Pine Bluff, the Arkansas River was at 49.7 feet at 8 a.m. Sunday and was expected to rise by about 1.3 feet sometime late Wednesday, he said.
At Pendleton, the expected crest is still nearly a week away, predicted for 37 feet on Friday. Sunday morning, the Arkansas River level at Pendleton was at 34.9 feet.