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The Associated Press

CLARENDON, Ark.—Arkansans sandbagged their front doors and pumped out their flooded basements Wednesday as a historic crest on the White River moved downstream, threatening to raise a days-long stand of water even higher.

Residents and county officials along the river’s path in east-central Arkansas anxiously tended to their property, worried that the river flows would hit an already swollen Mississippi River on the state’s eastern border and flow back into their cotton and wheat fields.

“I don’t think anybody knows how much higher it’s going to get,” said Monroe County resident Marlin Reeves as overcast skies threatened rain. Forecasters predict a 50 percent chance of showers and thunderstorms hitting the Arkansas prairie by Friday.

The uncertainty began early last week after heavy rains filled major rivers in northern Arkansas. Rivers spilled over their banks and flooded communities as the water moved downstream. Two people were lost in the storms and more than half the state’s counties have been declared disaster areas. Wednesday, Gov. Mike Beebe added Cross, Monroe, Perry and Prairie counties to the list.

National Weather Service hydrologist Steve Bays said the high waters will continue to threaten communities in Arkansas for weeks. The White River was expected to crest at Clarendon on Friday and at St. Charles this weekend, then reach its peak further downstream next week.

But water will remain on some roads and highways and in some homes into mid-April, as well as cover cropland into May or beyond, he said.

“The river’s going to be out of its banks for a prolonged period of time,” Bays said.

Outside of Des Arc, water from the White River began springing up in new three places Wednesday along a rural levee north of Interstate 40. The day before, volunteers used sandbags to hold back the “sand boils”—muddy springs that develop when water passes underneath the earthen barriers.

Loy Hamilton, area commander for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ effort on the White River, said workers used 50-gallon barrels to hold back the teapot-sized sand boils and build pressure to staunch the flow.

“Right now, they’re all flowing clear, which is ideal,” Hamilton said. “If you shut it off, it just forces it around to another hole.”

Hamilton said the levee would remain under 24-hour watch as long as the waters remain high.

At Maddox Bay in Monroe County, Reeves, 67, used a small tractor to pile sand in the front yard of his home along the Old White River. In its present-day channel, the swollen river moved along the opposite side of a pine-tree covered island visible from Reeves’ backyard. Already, river water flooded into other yards and homes down the gravel road from Reeves’ house.

Sand that Reeves got several days ago filled six bags piled against his front door.

Monroe County Judge Larry Morris, chief administrator in the county of some 11,300 people, said he feared the flooding would cut off roads to the area.







The county printed yellow-and-red flyers to distribute to residents, urging them to either evacuate or have enough food to last “at LEAST two weeks.” Wheat farmers already were reporting damage from the water, Morris said.

“We’re going to have an awful lot of crop damage in the lower part of the county,” he predicted.

Morris said he could remember when he was sheriff during a 1973 flood, hearing stories about huge logs from the Mississippi River traveling all the way upriver into Monroe County.

“We don’t know what the Mississippi is going to do yet,” he said.

At Indian Bay, a small community of mobile homes and cabins, 79-year-old Litty Cooper planned to pull Christmas decorations from a metal shed threatened by the flooding. She said floodwaters had only chased her out of the community twice in her life, recounting how her husband used to take their children up to a highway crossroad by boat to catch the school bus.

“If you come back here again I might be floating,” she told a visitor.

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On the Net:

Arkansas Emergency Management: http://www.adem.arkansas.gov/

Weather Service Arkansas flood map: http://tinyurl.com/2ujyrw