Rivers go up, up in state’s north

LITTLE ROCK — Rivers already swollen from several rounds of rain stayed on the rise Wednesday in north Arkansas, forcing hundreds from their homes, leaving highways flooded and prompting workers to build makeshift levees.

The day also saw more storms.

Authorities tracked a possible tornado that tossed wreckage of a home onto a highway and toppled trees as the storm system traveled through Craighead and Mississippi counties Wednesday afternoon. There were no injuries.

Storms Monday and Tuesday killed at least 11 people in the state - six because of flooding.

Gov. Mike Beebe, who toured tornado-damaged areas, said he was now concerned about the long-range effects of the flooding.

“With the tornadoes, you know what you’ve got the next day,” he said. “You start about trying to put your life back together, assessing damages and making repairs and getting in the insurance companies in, getting cleanup done.

“With the floods, we won’t know what we’re dealing with for weeks and maybe even longer than that because most of those rivers haven’t crested yet and so if they haven’t crested yet, they obviously haven’t started to recede. Until the water recedes you don’t know the extent of the damages.”

Pocahontas, like other river towns in north Arkansas, prepared for high waters.

On Wednesday, residents of more than 100 homes and an apartment complex in the southeast part of the Randolph County town evacuated as waters from the rising Black River crept closer to neighborhoods.

Families in several towns across northeast Arkansas - Black Rock, Imboden, Ravenden Springs and Hardy - fled from their homes earlier in the week as the Black, Spring and Eleven Point rivers all rose.

‘LET’S NOT TAKE A CHANCE’

In Pocahontas, police issued a mandatory evacuation order of a subdivision and an apartment complex for the elderly Wednesday morning, citing concerns over the Black River levee system’s ability to hold back water.

As heavy rains and occasional hail pelted the area, police drove through a neighborhood of about 100 homes, ordering people to leave.

“You are being evacuated,” the officer broadcast through a loudspeaker. “Please leave the area.”

City road crews brought dump-truck load after dump truck load to the subdivision to create a makeshift levee along Pace Road to protect homes in a low-lying area from the water.

Late Wednesday evening, a portion of a 3-year-old levee broke in eastern Pocahontas, sending about two feet of water into homes in the Robil Addition, said Marty Cagle, director of the Randolph County Office of Emergency Services.

Most residents had left the area Wednesday morning when police ordered the mandatory evacuation, but three or four remained in the subdivision.

Pocahontas firefighters rescued them by boat, Cagle said.

In 2008, when the Black River reached 25.5 feet in Pocahontas, three sections of the levee broke March 22. Water cascaded through the Patrick Manor Apartments and eventually crossed U.S. 67 south of town, forcing the road’s closure.

The levee, built in 1936, was not maintained after 1960. Trees and brambles grew into the earthen barrier, weakening its structure. Since the 2008 breaches, the county formed a new levee board and made repairs, Randolph County Judge David Jansen said.

“Last time, we panicked,” said a city worker who asked not to be named. “This time, we’re trying to get ahead of it.”

All 48 units of the Patrick Manor Apartments emptied Wednesday morning. Several residents placed plastic trash bags at the bottom of the doors and shored them with bags of sand to keep water from entering.

On Wednesday afternoon, Jerry Hudson stood in the carport of his Pace Road home and watched workers shore up the levee. He and his wife, Tricia Hudson, moved furniture out Wednesday morning.

“I said, ‘Let’s not take a chance,’” Jerry Hudson said. “I said, ‘Let’s load up our stuff and get out of here.’”

Water rose rapidly Wednesday.

Gene Dukatz said he measured the water rising at a rate of about 4 inches an hour.

Two feet of water stood in the parking lot of the Price Chopper grocery store and in the Kentucky Fried Chicken lot west of Pocahontas’ downtown.

Workers filled sandbags and built a levee around the stores.

“We started yesterday and have kept on going,” said Price Chopper manager Darrell Bates as he paused from his task of shoveling dirt and laying sandbags down.

In Corning to the east, by 8:30 a.m. Wednesday, the Black River surpassed the record high of 16.9 feet set in 1945. It reached 17.68 feet Wednesday evening and is expected to crest at 18 feet tonight.

FLOODED ROADS

By 4 p.m. Wednesday, the Black River in Pocahontas measured 27.29 feet. The record in Pocahontas is 27.9 feet set in 1915. Forecasters predict that will be surpassed by 7 p.m. today.

Rapid water swirled under the U.S. 67 Black River bridge on the way into Pocahontas from the south and lapped over the highway edges by Wednesday afternoon.

Arkansas Highway and Transportation Department crews are monitoring the bridge, said Cagle, Randolph County’s emergency management director.

“We have no intention of closing it,” Cagle said. “If we do, there’s not much of a way out of here.”

Highway officials closed U.S. 67 just east of Pocahontas because of high water, along with Arkansas 304, Arkansas 90 and Arkansas 328 in Randolph County.

The state Highway Department closed 33 roads across the state because of flooding and washed-out roadways.

Floods and mudslides have affected more state highways at this point than have tornadoes, said Randy Ort, a department spokesman.

Motorists also detoured around a mudslide on Arkansas 49B in Helena-West Helena and a washed-out roadway along Arkansas 127 in Aurora.

In Boone County, road crews tried to stave off closing Arkansas 43 southwest of Harrison.

“Worst-case scenario, we’ll have to close it,” Ort said. “We don’t want to do that.”

Until water recedes, Ort said, agency officials won’t know the extent of damage - if any.

Floodwaters that had caused problems on U.S. 64 entering Vilonia immediately after the tornado struck Monday night have long subsided, but mud and debris left over from the storm have hindered the cleanup process, especially as more rain fell Tuesday.

On the state’s western edge, high waters tested several of Polk County’s bridges, and another inch of rain could wash out several of them.

“It was weird,” said Brandon Ellison, the Polk County judge. “Out there, there weren’t any new trees on county roads after the storm, and I don’t think we got an inch of water anywhere in the county.”

Several smaller roads remained closed throughout the county Wednesday, but Ellison said he expected only one major county road to still be impassable this morning.

MORE STORMS

Weather officials tracked a storm system that began east of Jonesboro and crossed into Mississippi County on Wednesday afternoon. A National Weather Service meteorologist in Memphis said the service issued tornado warnings for the two counties but has not confirmed a tornado touched down. Witnesses reported seeing a twister dip into fields and then retreat into the air as it headed to the northeast.

The storm struck a home on Arkansas 158 west of Lake City in Craighead County, blasting wooden rafters, insulation and debris across the road and into a field about 50 yards away. Police briefly closed the road to clear the debris.

There were no reports of injuries.

The storm passed through Lake City and headed north of Manila before dissipating.

Weather Service crews from Memphis will survey the area for damage today to determine whether the storm did produce a tornado, a meteorologist said.

A day before, when the first of several rounds of storms marched across West Memphis on Tuesday evening, winds ripped off part of the roof at the office building where doctors from Crittenden Regional Hospital have offices, said hospital Chief Executive Officer Jamie Carter.

Carter said the building sustained major water damage because no one could cover the gaping hole in the roof.

No one in the 152-bed hospital next door was injured and there was no damage there, he said.

The only suspected tornado from Tuesday night was in the Polk County community of Wickes, said B.J. Simpson, a National Weather Service meteorologist in North Little Rock.

He said preliminary damage reports and radar data make Weather Service officials believe that a tornado touched down there but it could be days before they know for sure. Weather Service officials were still surveying damage from Monday night’s storms Wednesday.

“Unfortunately, there’s not enough vehicles and staff to get everywhere,” he said.

STORMS CLAIM 11

Officials identified three storm victims Wednesday.

Joann Bradley, 48, of Calamine died Tuesday evening when possible straight-line winds struck her home, Sharp County Sheriff Mark Counts said. She was the 11th storm victim of the week to be counted by the Arkansas Department of Emergency Management.

Rescue workers found her body about 150 yards from where her home once stood, Counts said.

Simpson, the National Weather Service meteorologist in North Little Rock, said it wasn’t likely a tornado that hit the southern Sharp County community.

“The radar really showed an intense area of straight-line winds,” Simpson said.

Bentonville police Wednesday identified two drowning victims discovered near Opal Road on Tuesday as Billy Morgan, 56, of Bentonville and Steven Beaty, 50, of Centerton.

Altogether, 11 people have died - one each in Perry, Sharp and Washington counties; two each in Benton and Madison counties; and four in Faulkner County.

VILONIA CLEANUP

In Vilonia, where a tornado packing winds of up to 130 miles per hour ravaged part of the Faulkner County town Monday evening, the focus Wednesday turned to cleanup and to helping those in need.

Electrical power remained out in city, which according to the Little Rock-based Gadberry Group, a research firm, had 2,927 households in 2010.

Entergy of Arkansas Inc. was “working diligently” to restore power, said Stephan Hawks, a spokesman for the county. Workers had managed to restore some of the city’s electricity Tuesday night only to have more bad weather knock it back out, Hawks said Wednesday.

Although the storm destroyed at least 60 Viloniaarea homes, most residents apparently found shelter with friends and relatives. Hawks said he knew of only two people who have sought shelter at the local senior-citizen center.

While some businesses, especially along U.S. 64, the city’s Main Street, sustained storm damage, it appeared less severe than that suffered by nearby houses, even those along the same highway.

“It’s probably - for the most part - because of the type of construction you have in commercial” buildings compared with houses, Hawks said.

Authorities set up help-line phones and also started a donation center at the old high school gymnasium at U.S. 64 and Arkansas 107 in Vilonia. There, people could leave donations such as nonperishable food, clothing and fuel for storm-ravaged residents.

Hawks said the only looting he knew of had been by people who were collecting tin, copper and other “things of value,” then hauling the items off.

“The perception initially is that they’re trying to clean up” when “in reality they’re being self-serving,” he said.

Hawks said authorities have handled the disaster well, both before and after it occurred.

A siren that the city of Vilonia sounded at least 30 minutes before the tornado struck gave people time to find shelter.

“If it hadn’t been for that, there would have been a lot more deaths, a lot more injuries,” Hawks said.

‘PREPARING FOR IT’

In hilly Van Buren County, residents who have been hit hard by tornadoes in recent years managed to avoid the latest ones. But they dealt Wednesday with water problems caused by so much recent rain.

Clinton Mayor Roger Rorie said 85 percent of the county’s