The flooding caused by a levee failure near Pitts is receding after debris was removed from various areas, officials said Tuesday.
Scotty Williams, the Poinsett County Office of Emergency Management Director, said Tuesday morning that he'd been told about three breaks --two on the Cache River levee and one on the private levee.
While he was not sure exactly what caused these levees to fail, it was most likely "rain, lots of rain will do it," he said. "Earlier [this month] we got a total of four and a half inches of rain in just a few days."
The Cache River is experiencing moderate flooding that is expected to continue through Saturday, the National Weather Service office in North Little Rock said in a post on X Monday evening.
"The Cache River at Patterson (Woodruff Co) and the Ouachita River at Camden (Ouachita County) are at their highest levels in six years," the post said.
Williams said crews worked to get debris, especially trees, out of the river so that the water could pass through. They also placed sandbags to deter flooding.
"We had to do something to prevent us from flooding, it was fixing to get really bad," Williams said.
Williams, who has been in his position for three years, said, at its worst, the flooding was the deepest he had ever seen it.
"I couldn't even tell you how deep, it depends on the road. Some roads are still covered by water. You can't get to Cache River Bridge in Pitts," he said. "Water did get on personal property, it got up to a house but has since then gone down. It never got in."
The director said no injuries had been reported in Poinsett County due to the flooding, as of Tuesday morning.
"Everything is under control for now. We're just monitoring the river and making sure it doesn't turn back around and flood on us," he said.
Grubbs Mayor Candace Miller said, after Pitts was cleaned, the debris flowed down to their bridge, in a post on Facebook Monday evening.
"It bogs down Pitts and then comes down here when it breaks free," She said Tuesday morning.
She "called and requested for a[n] emergency permit to get equipment on the bridge to remove the debris so it would take pressure off of us. I was given the permit," Miller wrote on Facebook. "I was unable to get equipment needed from Poinsett County or the State of Arkansas."
Miller also said she called on John Connors for help.
"He's a landowner, a regular citizen, and he got us that equipment. We worked for two hours to remove large trees and all kinds of things," Miller said Tuesday. "And we are so, so thankful. If it wasn't for him getting us that equipment, it would have been a heck of a mess."
The removal of debris helped relieve some of the pressure on the levee, she said.
"Water is flowing under the bridge as of yesterday, and there's still trash coming from up north, but it is able to pass through," Miller said. "We had to do something, we had to do it fast. We're in good shape, but this is something we have to be watching day and night for several, several days and praying for no rain."
The mayor said, if the levees had failed under the pressure that was building up from the debris, Grubbs would have been affected detrimentally.
"We are a farming community, that's our livelihood," she said.
She said the permit also allowed her to close Arkansas 18, which was still closed before 10:30 a.m. on Tuesday.
A post from the mayor on the Grubbs City Hall Facebook page said the highway was closed at 9 p.m.
"It will remain closed until the water recedes off the road," Miller said.
Miller said the flooding of the Cache River is a recurring issue.
"I've tried to get people's help. This is a really bad situation. Residents have built up levees even higher to try to keep it off our town, our people, their farm ground, and that is thousands of dollars they're out," she said.
The mayor said she wants some action to be taken to help manage the flooding.
Miller said, if the state could clean the Cache River from the Pitts area down past Grubbs, it would help the area dramatically.
"We've got to fix it instead of talking about it, and all of us sitting here afraid to lose everything," she said.