HEAVY RAINS
Rainfall leads to swift-water rescue
Heavy rains late Saturday night and early Sunday morning prompted at least one swift-water rescue, and the Garland County Sheriff’s Department asked the public to exercise caution on Lake Hamilton due to the amount of debris washed into the lake.
“We got called out along with the (Garland County) Sheriff’s Department for someone who was basically trapped on the roof of their vehicle that had (driven) off into a flooded roadway out there off of the Caddo Gap Road, somewhere there in the area around Yukon Pass,” Autumn Carlisle, chief of the 70 West Fire Department, said Sunday afternoon.
“We frequently have issues with high water in that particular area. It’s kind of dark; there’s not a lot of light out there so we get a lot of people that do drive off in there.”
Carlisle said the driver was not injured during the incident. Due to a poor vantage point, Carlisle said 70 West Fire Department contacted the Hot Springs Fire Department’s swift-water team and the Bonnerdale Fire Department to assist in the rescue.
“When our units got on scene, they were probably 200, 250 yards from being able to reach the person, but Bonnerdale came in from their side and had a much closer vantage point. So Bonnerdale Fire Department actually was able to get the person off of the roof of the vehicle and into safety,” she said.
The 70 West Fire Department also responded to the Crystal
Springs area, where Carlisle said several boat docks were damaged during the storm late Saturday night.
“We just had some pretty good wind come in and damage quite a few of the docks. (It) pushed some of the docks into each other and ripped the roof off of some of the others. (We) had a bunch of trees down. Piney (Fire Department) came out and actually cleared the roadway and got it open,” she said.
In addition to trees blocking some roadways and “several motor vehicle accidents,” Carlisle said several bridges in west Garland County were impassible Saturday night and one remained barricaded on Sunday.
“I don’t know if just people not being able to see because of the heavy rain was a contributing factor but it all happened within the same vicinity of that storm system that moved through late (Saturday) night. We did end up contacting the road department to have them bring some barricades,” she said.
“The bridge on North Pearcy Road was completely underwater. They said you couldn’t even see the rails on the side of it.”
By Sunday afternoon, Carlisle said she believed much of the waters in west Garland County had receded and most of the bridges flooded on Saturday night were once again passible.
“What a storm last night! Lake Hamilton is a mess with debris everywhere. We can not express it enough, if you chose to go on the lake today please use extreme caution,” the sheriff’s department posted on its Facebook page on Sunday, accompanied by photographs of debris floating in the lake and in coves.
Entergy Hydro Operations was releasing thousands of cubic feet per second of water through Carpenter and Remmel dams on Sunday as a result of the heavy rainfall.
Entergy said in an email newsletter Sunday morning that flows from Remmel Dam reached a maximum of 44,850 cfs and had dropped to 23,000 cfs and “receding with no additional significant rainfall expected for our watershed area.”
“We are deactivating our response plan but will continue to notify if anything changes. Both lakes Hamilton and Catherine stayed within their normal pool levels and are currently stable,” the email said.
The National Weather Service issued a flash flood warning until 5 a.m. Sunday for the Ouachita River below Remmel Dam in Hot Spring County after dam operators reported elevated releases at 11:04 p.m. Saturday.
“This is a routine high water event which will result in lowland flooding along the Ouachita River in Hot Spring County. The current flow rate from Remmel Dam at 11:04 p.m. is 34.5 thousand cubic feet per second,” the warning stated.
“Livestock and property should be moved out of the flood plain. Flooded roadways should be avoided.”