Water rescues and evacuations were taking place in northern Arkansas on Wednesday morning, as rising water inundated homes and businesses and prompted the National Weather Service to issue a rare flash flood emergency, warning that heavy rains from storms could cause “catastrophic” damage.
The flash flood emergency in Marion County, near the state’s border with Missouri, affected about 3,867 people, according to the Weather Service. The alert included residents of the city of Yellville, where between 6 and 11 inches of rain had fallen in 12 hours, according to forecasters at the Weather Service office in Little Rock.
The Weather Service only issues flash flood emergencies when extreme rain is leading to a severe threat to human life.
The Marion County government said in posts on social media that at least one bridge had been washed out, another bridge was covered in water and a county road was closed.
The city of Flippin, which is just north of the area covered by the flash flood emergency, told its roughly 1,300 residents to avoid city streets on Wednesday morning. “Our city streets are flooded and not safe!!!” read a post on the city’s Facebook page. “Use extreme caution!!”
Photos shared by Flippin’s police department showed streets submerged in debris-filled water.
In Yellville, a city with about 1,100 residents, 6 to 11 inches of rain falling in half a day is a more than 100-year occurrence, according to Tabitha Clarke, a hydrologist with the Weather Service in Little Rock.
The rainfall since Tuesday evening is expected to double the typically monthly total for July. It is unusual to see this much rain in the driest part of the year, and especially for the rain to have occurred overnight, Joseph Goudsward, a meteorologist with the Weather Service in Little Rock, said.
Provisional data from a U.S.G.S. gage on Crooked Creek in Yellville measured the creek’s water levels at nearly 22 feet. Over the past year, it has fluctuated between 9 and just under 15 feet.
A flash flood warning was issued in eight other counties in Central Arkansas on Wednesday morning because of heavy rain from thunderstorms.
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