With a record Arkansas River crest of 29 feet expected today in North Little Rock and calls for some sections of the city to evacuate, a lot of people are in no hurry to leave.
The North Little Rock mayor's office recommended on Saturday that people in the Dixie Addition, a historically black neighborhood just north of U.S. 70, begin evacuation. Sunday afternoon, though, neighborhood streets were busy with people preparing for high water.
Doris Allen, 68, has lived in Dixie all her life. She said the community is made up of friends and families, where everyone knows each other. It's a place where people stay and grow their families.
"I'm going to stay out here and work as long as I can," Allen said.
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The American Red Cross set up an emergency shelter at the North Little Rock Community Center. About 2:30 p.m. Sunday, three people had checked in since the shelter opened at 4:30 p.m. Friday, shelter manager Shirley Bullock said.
Red Cross workers have set up 70 cots in the center and can set up more if a greater number of people arrive.
Bullock said she doesn't know how many people to expect.
"We're just open for the clients to come in," she said.
Officials reported Sunday morning that 150 homes in the neighborhood have been evacuated and another 136 are in danger of flooding. The people who have left are going someplace other than the shelter.
Because people have known about the flooding in advance, many of them have already made arrangements to stay with their families, said Kathy Smith, the public information officer with the Arkansas Department of Emergency Management.
She said family is important in the South and rather than seek help from shelters, many people are turning to friends and family. Smith also said it is not unusual for Arkansans to stay in their homes undeterred by city officials' recommendations to evacuate.
"They kind of have that mentality of we will take care of ourselves as best we can," she said.
Christina Fowler, spokesman for the Arkansas Red Cross, said 10 people stayed in the Dardanelle Community Center shelter Saturday night and 123 people stayed in the Red Cross shelters statewide. The vast majority of those seeking shelter were in Fort Smith, where 76 people stayed Saturday night.
These numbers, however, are only a fraction of the number of people displaced by the severe flooding across Arkansas, Fowler said.
"The number of people affected is probably exponentially higher," she said. "A number of people are staying with friends, church members, family."
North Little Rock spokesman Nathan Hamilton said some people have decided to fight the floods by sandbagging their homes and surrounding community. He said because the floodwaters are predicted to rise approximately a foot into the North Little Rock neighborhoods, some people are willing to take the risk.
In North Little Rock, officials organized six sites to pick up and fill sandbags. In the Dixie Addition neighborhood, residents and volunteers worked diligently to protect their homes.
There's something for everyone to do, Allen said Sunday while 50 or so people worked nearby preparing sandbags. The older folks sat in the shade and prepared the bags for people to fill with sand and hoist into trucks. Rep. Linda Chesterfield, whose district includes the Dixie Addition, was in charge of making sure all the volunteers have food.
Allen held up her phone and showed a photo of a toddler shoveling sand with her hands. "Our children from out here, even the children, have worked," Allen said.
Lee "Buck" Jeffrey, 85, has been out helping for the past six days. He's the president of the Dixie Addition Community Development Center. Jeffrey said his group has been talking about the possibility of a flood for the past five years.
Allen said Dixie regularly floods, and Jeffrey said he thinks the flood system needs a reboot to protect the people who live in the area.
But that costs money, he said.
Allen said she hopes the floods will bring attention to Dixie and make lawmakers pay the area more attention. She said people who had never heard of the neighborhood were visiting to show support or help, and it makes her more optimistic about the future.
Gov. Asa Hutchinson stopped in Dixie on Sunday during his travels visiting communities affected by the flooding down the Arkansas River. He said he had never seen anything like the support fellow Arkansans have shown each other through out the flooding.
Chesterfield agreed.
"They have been absolutely wonderful," she said about the volunteers.
Fowler said the Red Cross, too, has been inundated with volunteers and donations.
"We had a mother come in with three children who needed a stroller for her youngest child," Fowler said, smiling. "She wasn't even through registering and someone came walking in with a stroller for her. ... This community has just been amazing."
People from surrounding counties have been helping sandbag the Dixie Addition neighborhood. Churches have been the backbone of the support. The Chuch of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and New Life Church were among the groups shoveling dirt on Sunday.
"This is what it's all about," said Jared Dixon, who volunteered with the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
Dixon lives in Benton but drove to Dixie to help the people there.
Jeffrey said the volunteers have helped the Dixie residents to build a wall around their community and fill in the drains with sandbags.
"Without that we couldn't have made it," Jeffrey said about the volunteers.
Leigh Bunten, who served with New Life Church, said she wanted to do "just whatever we can to help the community and help people not have water flowing in the house."
"We just keep praying that the water doesn't overcome us," Jeffrey said.
Information for this report was provided by Clara Turnage and Dale Ellis of the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette.
A Section on 06/03/2019