The Arkansas River is predicted to reach 30-year highs over Memorial Day weekend and water speeds are expected to be more than seven times faster than the level deemed too dangerous for small craft, a U.S. Army Corps of Engineers spokesman said Wednesday.
A small-craft advisory is enacted when water speeds reach or exceed 70,000 cubic feet per second. Flows at the Trimble Lock and Dam near Fort Smith were at 170,000 cubic feet Wednesday and the flow should peak there at 530,000 cubic feet on Saturday, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers spokesman Laurie Driver said.
If the predictions are right, Arkansas hasn't seen water speeds this fast in nearly a century, she said.
"We're trying to get the word out that this is a serious situation and people need to take action," Driver said. "They need to be making decisions about their property and their families and they need to do it now."
Driver said the Corps has been in contact with commercial barge operators, who are voluntarily removing their towboats from the river until the water subsides. Driver said that the Corps cannot outright ban recreational boating on the river but she hopes common sense will keep boaters off the water.
"You're like a cork going downstream," Driver said. "You have no control in water like that. You can hit anything that's in the river -- trees, rocks, dams. There's no way to slow down."
National Weather Service meteorologist Jim Reynolds said northern Oklahoma and southern Kansas have received more than 7 inches of rain the last week and much of that water will flow into the Arkansas River, causing high chances of flooding along the river's route.
The Arkansas River's flood risk reduction lakes are in Oklahoma, and Driver said the heavy rains have filled those bodies of water and the lakes cannot safely retain any more.
"They're at the point where they can't hold any more water," Driver said. "They have to release water to keep the integrity of the dams. They're releasing larger amounts of water because they have no choice."
Arkansas' locks and dams are designed to increase the flow during dry seasons, not block water, Driver said.
"Most of our locks will open their gates and the water will just pass through," Driver said. "We might have the ability to hold some back at Dardanelle, but if we tried to hold back water altogether, the water would just go around it."
The Police Department in Van Buren, which sits on the northern bank of the Arkansas River, on Wednesday warned that the river was already in flood stage at 23.6 feet and was expected to crest at 33 feet minimum by Friday. Van Buren police spokesman Sgt. Jonathan Wear said officials closed flood gates along the river levee Wednesday and shut down the Jefferson Street bridge.
Reynolds said the Arkansas River likely will reach major flood stage in Dardanelle by Monday, Morrilton by Tuesday and Toad Suck by Wednesday. The water will reach Little Rock by next Thursday, but Reynolds said because the waterway widens out near the Capitol, the river will likely not reach flood stage.
The water will, however, be fast, Driver said. Flows at Murray Lock and Dam at Little Rock are expected to peak at 475,000 cubic feet per second on Wednesday.
Capt. Doug Hoffman said the Little Rock Fire Department's water-rescue teams will not deploy smaller rescue boats at any level above 100,000 cubic feet per second, and won't put rescue divers in such turbulent water.
"Above 100,000 cubic feet per second, we only take our large boat out and all rescue operations are performed from the boat," Hoffman said. "The Little Rock Fire Department's recommendation is for no water crafts of any size be on the river with levels as high as they are predicting."
The North Little Rock Fire Department holds to the same policy as it relates to the Arkansas River, Capt. Heath Hoops said, adding that both North Little Rock and Little Rock have special operation teams for swift-water rescue.
"We're well prepared," Hoops said. "But the best advice is to completely stay off the river."
Authorities are preparing to close three flood gates on a levee protecting the Port of Little Rock and surrounding areas to prevent the river from backing up onto port property, Bryan Day, executive director of the Port Authority, said Wednesday afternoon.
The gates likely will be closed either late morning or early afternoon today, he said. Two of the gates on the levee are on property the port controls. The gates last were closed in spring 2016 for two days during a period of high flows, Day said.
The high flows on the Arkansas River are just the latest impediment for barge traffic at the port. Barges haven't been traveling up the Arkansas River for a couple of weeks because of high water on the Mississippi River and the Little Rock port gets little, if any, barges upriver from the port, Day said.
The flood gates are left open to allow water to flow into the river. But the river now is threatening to backflow through gates.
"We'll wait to the last possible moment, but once the river gets to a certain height ... we will close the three gates so water cannot flow back into the port," Day said.
He told members of the Port Authority board in an email that several barges are in the slack-water harbor, which is protected from the river, so loading or unloading can continue with them.
Driver said the Corps knows the "wave" of water will lead to flooding in some areas, saying places like Pine Bluff, that flooded in 2015's heavy rains, should expect to flood again.
In Pine Bluff, the Arkansas River is expected to crest at 44.9 feet on Monday, just shy of 3 feet above flood stage.
Rick Rhoden, Pine Bluff street department supervisor, said the city has dropped off one dump truck load of sand for residents along Riverside Drive, and will drop off two more loads at the junction of Riverside Drive and Island Harbor Road by the weekend. Rhoden said the city also will supply empty sandbags for residents' use along Riverside Drive.
"We'll take the sand and the sandbags out so residents can fill the bags and create a barrier to keep the water out of their homes," Rhoden said. He estimated that about 30 homes will be affected by the flooding inside the city limits.
"If the water goes higher, we'll have more problems," he added, "but right now it's not expected to crest above that. We shouldn't get any in the city limits on the city side of the levee. It would have to get 50 feet or higher for that to happen."
David Lynch, fleet manager for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers fleet terminal at Pine Bluff, said once the flows begin to ramp up, barge traffic will be halted because the locks will be closed.
"Once the water gets into the sector gear pits we'll close the locks," he said. "That's what opens and closes the miter gates on the locks."
Jefferson County Sheriff Lafayette Woods Jr. said his office has been preparing since he first heard the Corps of Engineers would begin releasing water from upstream.
Woods said the department maintains a Coast Guard surplus boat it uses for water rescues and said deputies will be patrolling the river to assist in the event rising water traps people along the river.
"We're on standby in the event we have to start evacuating people," he said.
Jack Murphy, owner of Murphy's Marina on Island Harbor Road in Pine Bluff, spentWednesday moving equipment at his marina to higher ground and trying to get prepared for the rise of the river.
"They say it's going to get to 45 feet," he said, gesturing at the levee just a few feet away. "That's going to be halfway up that levee. That's the worst flooding we've had out here since '93."
CORRECTION: Lafayette Woods Jr. is the Jefferson County sheriff. An earlier version of this article misidentified the sheriff.
Metro on 05/23/2019