Deluge! : Flooding prompts state of emergency in county
Posted on Wednesday, March 19, 2008
BENTON COUNTY - "That doesn't look like much water. I bet I can cross it.
"Wow, this is really deeper than it looked. How high up my door is the water ?
"Why is the engine sputtering ? Oh no, don't stall. "
And then, one more car is stuck in a flood.
Although flooding didn't seem to be causing too many problems during the day Tuesday, things progressively worsened into the night as the rain seemed to have no end in sight.
By just before 8 p. m., County Judge Gary Black had supplied The Daily Record with a list of 80 road closings throughout the county, and Benton County Central Communications continued to deal with more.
By 9 p. m., a state of emergency was declared within the county.
The Benton County Road Department office was empty Tuesday afternoon as every employee available was out in the field because of flooding, according to an office receptionist. She did not know the details, but said there were a lot of flooded areas.
At the Benton County Sheriff's Office, where deputies were ready to respond to storm-related stalled vehicles or collisions, Public Information Deputy Doug Gay said there had been no calls by the afternoon hours. Through the evening, however, Cencom had dispatched deputies to as many as 10 accidents or stranded-vehicle reports.
Rogers had four flooded areas reported in the afternoon, according to Lt. Mike Johnson of the Rogers Police Department, but the RPD had only received two calls at that point, one for an accident and the other for a vehicle that stalled after the car's tire drifted off the road. Rogers saw flooding at Champions between North Gate and South Gate, 26 th Street and Perry Road, Pleasant Ridge Road and Breckenridge, and 28 th Street and Pleasant Grove Road.
The Bentonville Fire Department reported only two of the city's normal problem areas were flooded: the intersection of Opal Road and Rainbow Road and the area of Peach Orchard and the Bluffs.
Bella Vista Fire Chief Glenn Puryear said there were a few flooded areas in his town, but there had been no calls. He worried that reporters asking about accidents would prove a jinx.
He may have been right. Reports of accidents increased in the evening, when flooding was harder to spot by drivers.
Hydroplaning, which accounts for many traffic accidents in rainy conditions, can be avoided by drivers simply slowing down, Gay said. And drivers should simply avoid driving through water, especially deep water.
"If you see water that's running through the road and you can't tell how deep it is, don't cross it," Johnson said. It's a simple admonition, but Gay said it could mean the difference between life and death. "People get washed away and killed on account of no common sense," Gay said. "This is stuff everybody knows. They've been told that time and time again. "It takes little water, Gay said, to send a vehicle drifting off the road and downstream. "Two feet of water will displace about 3, 000 pounds," Gay said. "That's enough to wash your car away. "Gay said people tend to leave their vehicles too quickly, plunging into the cold water and exposing themselves unnecessarily to the elements. "They're better off staying in the car for as long as they can," he said.
Every circumstance, however, is different, Gay said, and people should be ready to evacuate the vehicle if needed, especially if the water is rising quickly or the vehicle begins to tumble. At 9 p.m. Tuesday, the National Weather Service office in Tulsa, Okla., reported that the day's rainfall total at XNA had reached 4. 62 inches.
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