With heavy rain predicted, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is advising people in flood plains downstream of Beaver, Table Rock, Bull Shoals, and Norfork dams in northern Arkansas and southern Missouri as well as Greers Ferry Lake in central Arkansas to maintain awareness and monitor lake levels and the weather.These lakes’ flood pools are partially full from recent rains and more rain is forecast in coming days.
Mark Case, Deputy Operations Project Manager with the Corps, says while a great deal of rain is forecast, both Bull Shoals and Norfork lakes have a large percentage of their flood storage capacity available as of late Thursday.
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Case says a lot of precipitation is predicted all across Northwest Arkansas.
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According to a press release from the Corps, people should decide beforehand whether to move livestock, equipment and belongings to higher ground. Flows downstream can increase quickly, with perhaps no more than an hour or two notice; and rapidly changing conditions can create even shorter notice. The closer to a dam you are, the faster changes in river conditions can occur when releases from a dam are changed.
People in at-risk areas should stay in contact with local emergency officials, if larger than normal releases are required from a dam, warnings will go out through local emergency management channels.
It is worth noting that lakes cannot prevent all flooding. Once a lake is full, larger than normal releases have to be made. The lakes have limitations that Mother Nature can exceed, and from time to time does. Therefore downstream property owners should be judicious in how they develop land within the flood plains.
Floods are not as frequent because of the dams, and when they do occur, they are typically not as severe as they were before the dams were built. But there will still be occasions when significant floods occur downstream of these dams.
If you experienced flooding in the high water events of 2008, 2011, or 2015, you could again experience flood waters in the same areas.
The National Weather Service maintains river forecast data that be accessed at the following link, which may be helpful for individuals during the upcoming rain event:
http://water.weather.gov/ahps/.
Daily lake information can be obtained at www.swl-wc.usace.army.mil or the Corps’ mobile App which can be found in mobile App stores by searching for USACE Little Rock.
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