WOODRUFF COUNTY, Ark. — Several inches of rain are expected to fall over the state this week and with rivers running high in Woodruff County, the White and Cache rivers are being watched closely.
Last week’s rain sent the Cache River to just above major flood stage on Thursday and now as the water has started to recede the forecast is expecting the river rise again to major flood stage in a few days, according to the National Weather Service.
There was great concern for the potential breach of a levee along the White River in Jackson County last week, but according to McCrory Mayor Doyle Fowler there is no need to lose sleep.
“The water has gone down enough that is not a danger any longer, but it will take some drying out before they will be able to get in there and rebuild the levee and fix back where it needs to be,” Fowler said.
However, Jim Garner is familiar with the battle of flooding since he has lived right along the Cache River in Patterson since 1953.
He said he has come to expect at least his yard getting flooded every 3 or 4 years.
“We pump it out keep it out of the houses we can't keep it out of the yard it's going to get in the yard but just learn to deal with because we lived here all my life,” Garner said.
People of Woodruff County will continue to watch the murky waters takeover farmland and forests, but they don’t seem to be too concerned at this time.
The flood stage at Patterson is expected to crest at 12.3 feet, this is very similar to last year when the water reached 12.35 feet on March 1.
This is the only location expecting major flooding as of Monday evening’s forecast.
The highest crest recorded was from the flood of April 1927 when the Cache and White rivers merged into the one and the flood stage reached 16 feet.