Water levels are swelling closer to 1990 numbers

National Weather Service issues alerts as Spring Bank, Fulton area hit flood stages

Area water levels reported late Saturday by the National Weather Service and the Corps of Engineers pushed closer to those of May 1990, the last major flood of the Red.

NWS alerts predicted some places would see similar results.

Spring Bank near Doddridge, Ark., had minor flooding Saturday and was under flood warning until further notice, effective that morning, according to NWS. By presstime, the river there had surpassed its flood stage of 37 feet by nearly a foot and was expected to rise to major flood stage, 41 feet, by Thursday evening, NWS reports state.

The river hit flood stage at 8 p.m. Saturday near Fulton, Ark., which was under a similar flood warning. NWS predicts a level near 32 feet there by Wednesday.

At Pecan Point near DeKalb, Texas, the river just exceeded 1990’s crest of 34.4 feet and was still rising late Saturday. By Monday, that part of the Red is expected to be about 35.2 feet, inches from its record 36 feet set in 1938.

Upstream at Lake Texoma, Brande Serner with the Army Corps of Engineers operations division said she believes the lake’s level may fall soon, based on hydrology reports. The corps reported Texoma’s elevation at 645.45 feet as of 4 p.m.

“Things are looking much better today,” Serner said. “We had a little amount of rain, but it was a small amount, and I just received an update from hydrology when I was looking

at the lake elevations. It looks like we might be at a crest.”

Other lakes affecting area rivers were still high Saturday, according to NWS reports.

Flood warnings continuing through the first part of the week or until further notice are still in effect for other areas: Sulphur River below Talco, Texas, including Naples; Horatio, Ark., on the Little River; and the Index Bridge over the Red River between Texarkana and Ashdown, Ark.

See the Rampaging Red map for other water levels recorded late Saturday.