9 months ago
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"The White River here at Clarendon is about a foot and a half above flood stage," says Allen James, the President of the Clarendon Levee District.
Thousands of gallons of water in the White River flow by Clarendon. The river is running just above 27 feet and neighboring farm lands are somewhere under the surface.
This weekend water covered some of the streets in Clarendon after eight inches of rainfall in only a few hours. But city pumps managed to get all the water to the other side of the levee and away from town, a task that was not as easy during last year's record floods.
Allen James remembers, "It was about 30 days of pumping rainwater out of town because the flood gates like you see were closed so the river wouldn't back into town. We had to pump over the top of the levee here. Here where we're standing we had seven pumps lined up down the levee down here pumping rainwater out of town."
Scott Bowen and his dog Louie are fans of catfish.
He says the rising river is good for fishing, and so far no where near as dangerous as it was last year when farmers even had to move their livestock to higher grounds.
Bowen says, "It was all flooded. We had to pull our horses out and take them to Monroe Arkansas and get them out of here because we didn't have a place to put them. But it's a lot better this year."
Last year heavy rains over a three state area contributed to the record floods. This year residents are betting Mother Nature will be a little more friendly.
The White River, the Ouachita River and even the Arkansas River are all above flood stage right now.
