Economic devastation and loss of life have become the norm in Northeast Arkansas when flood waters surge

State Rep. Scott Baltz, D-Pocahontas, knows what it’s like to operate a flood rescue mission on a flood soaked road in the dark. He’s navigated a tractor on Randolph County Road 304 near a massive earthen levee that protects his hometown from the often rising Black River. The former fire chief thinks the economic destruction and lives lost are too much to bear, and something has to be done, he told Talk Business & Politics.

“We’ve got a monster … we’ve got to fix it,” he said.

Baltz, Rep. Fran Cavenaugh, R-Walnut Ridge, Sen. Dave Wallace, R-Leachville, and Rep. Joe Jett, R-Success, think state leaders need to meet with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the Federal Emergency Management Agency to formulate a plan. Gov. Asa Hutchinson told Talk Business & Politics he supports a “stakeholders meeting” and measures need to be taken.

“Where are we with our levee system? Is there something we can do better in managing the levee system?” the governor asked. “And, so that’s the serious look we have to bring to our partners.”

Since 2008 there have been at least three floods in the region that have been deemed historic. Each time the earthen levee was compromised, and large swaths of eastern Pocahontas have been submerged under water. When the levee breaches, a torrent of water is unleashed on the countryside. Hundreds of thousands of row crop acres are damaged and hundreds of homes and businesses are damaged or destroyed. Roads and bridges are washed away. As the water moves south from Pocahontas, other counties, and cities are impacted.

The agriculture losses from the recent flood could top $300 million, Hutchinson said. At least $21.5 million worth of damage has been done to businesses, and that total is almost certain to rise, Hutchinson said. The cost to replace the homes lost or damaged could run in the tens of millions of dollars, and the impact to roads and local government budgets could be higher than that, according to official estimates. The economic impacts from these three floods could top $1 billion.

Why has this region been struck with so much water recently?

The reasons are complex and involve practices in other states. Since 1920 the number of levee kilometers in the Mississippi River Basin between Rock Island, Ill., and Head of Passes, La., has doubled to 5,630 kilometers, according to the U.S. Geological Survey. Each time a levee is built, water flow is altered. As more levees have been built north of the Natural State, it sends more water flowing down.

Some states like Missouri dredge rivers, which cause it to flow even faster, Baltz said. Arkansas does little dredging if any at all, he said. When water reaches here there are natural obstructions in the rivers that slow water movement down, and allow it to collect faster.

Another problem is outputs from flood control lakes, Jett told Talk Business & Politics. At the head of the Black River is Clearwater Lake, a reservoir lake near Piedmont, Missouri. In mid-April, hydrologists predicted up to 16-inches of rain in Missouri before May 8, but flow out of Clearwater wasn’t increased prior to the rains, meaning the lake was full when the deluge hit, he said. If water had been released from the lake, the amount of water that “bottlenecked” near Pocahontas would have been less, he said. Releasing water early can impact the tourism industry in those areas, but when people are losing their lives, homes, and livelihoods down river those have to be paramount concerns, he said.

“Those lakes were built for flood control, not recreation. I’m all for recreation, but we’ve got to do something,” he said.

Cavenaugh has visited the levee, and thinks action has to be taken. In Lawrence County, flood waters have decimated farmers. Thousands of rice acres may have been destroyed. She plans to meet with the governor and other agencies, and it might need to include Missouri officials, she said.
A series of precision leveled fields near Walnut Ridge may have diverted the water away from the town of 5,300 residents this time, she said. Levees in the region were built decades ago, and can’t deal with a rapidly changing water flows, she said.

Another problem in Arkansas is the myriad of drainage and levee districts scattered across the state, Wallace said. It’s an unconnected system that may need oversight from governing body at the legislative level, he said. Wallace admits there may not be enough money to stop flooding in the region.

“How do you defend against everything?” he said. “I don’t know how we can raise the money to defend against every type of natural disaster that can occur.”

Baltz has several short-term and long-term fixes to alleviate floods on the Black River in Northeast Arkansas. There is an old railroad dump that obstructs and channels water towards east Pocahontas. Removing the dump would help, he said.

Construction equipment and barges on the river, used to build the new U.S. 67 bridge spanning the river, were part of the reason the water levels got so high last time, he said. Work on one of the piers for the bridge slowed water movement. Once the project is complete, it should help, he said. A valve needs to be placed on a 24-inch storm drain pipe on Old County Road in east Pocahontas. The valve would allow the city to stop some water from inundating that part of the city, he said.

Lawmakers will have to make some tough decisions in the coming weeks and years, Baltz said. The levee may have to be revamped or moved, and that could cost millions of dollars once the engineering and environmental studies are tacked onto the constructions costs.

“I know it will take lots of money, but folks are losing a lot of money and are constantly having to rebuild their lives,” Baltz said.

Arkansas may also have to consider dredging some of its rivers, Baltz said. The costs to do so would be in the millions of dollars, but the floods are much costlier and lives are at risk, he said.

The time to act is now, Cavenaugh said. Floods in this part of the state have made national news multiple times in the last nine years. The economic devastation and the loss of lives must stop, she said. There is momentum and it needs to be seized.

“You can’t tell which way water will go … what we have now doesn’t work,” Cavenaugh said. “It will happen again. We will have another flood.”