FLOODING STILL POSSIBLE IN COUNTY

By Ray King/OF THE COMMERCIAL STAFF

While the possibility of flooding still exists in the Island Harbor area today, Jefferson County Office of Emergency Management Coordinator Wally Hunt said projections now are that it won’t be as bad as originally expected.

“The good news is the National Weather Service has revised their projection from earlier in the week down,” Hunt said Friday. “They were originally expecting the Arkansas River to reach about 44 feet Saturday, but that was lowered to 43.2 feet when the forecast came out Friday.”

Flood stage on the river at Pine Bluff is 42 feet, and according to the weather service, water should drop below that by Monday, and continue to recede as the week goes by.

In the Island Harbor area, Hunt said water was “two or three inches deep” on the roadway and people who live out there have already moved to vehicles to higher ground.

“They’re in a standby mode and have alternate forms of transportation (boats) to get them back and forth to their houses,” he said.

On Wednesday, some residents in the Island Harbor area and along Riverside Drive loaded rental trucks and trailers and also moved them to higher ground, a practice that continued both Thursday and Friday.

“Those people that live out there have gotten used to doing that,” Hunt said. “Now they’re like the rest of us. They’re just waiting to see what will happen next.”

Meanwhile, the Army Corps of Engineers has continued the small craft advisory on the river because rains earlier this week pushed water flows above safe levels.