LONOKE, Ark. (KTHV) — We've been dealing with heavy rain over the past week and some of the floodwaters are choosing to stick around. Water is overflowing from rivers and creeks, causing many state highways across Arkansas to shut down.
“The floods that we have seen during these last several rain events are on highways that we call the usual suspects. The creek rises or the water has nowhere to go so it goes on top of the roads,” Danny Straessle with the Arkansas Highway Transportation Department said.
There are more than 50 state highway road closures currently in Arkansas.
“You can have a highway that has three different creek crossings on it so you could have three different particular parts of a highway closed,” he said.
Drivers in Lonoke trying to get through Highway 31 to get to England said they haven't seen it flooded this bad in more than 10 years.
“A lot of water, I thought I could go this way to go to England. But I'm going to have to turn around and go back since the road is flooded,” one driver said.
“I was headed back to Pine Bluff then I ran into this. I had no idea that 31 was closed and when I went on IDrive Arkansas I saw that 146 was closed but I didn’t know highway 31 was closed,” another driver said.
So for now, drivers will have to work around the road closures.
“I'm going to go through Highway 15 then through England and then I'll be on my way back,” one driver said.
If you try to go around the roadblocks you might want to think again because state highway police have been giving out tickets and they can cost you anywhere from $100 to $200.