Little Rock, Arkansas

Historical Floods

The Arkansas area seems to invite a lot of natural disasters if history is anything to go by. The city of Little Rock, without a doubt, has a long history of floods. Since it was founded, the residents have had to deal with flood problems, water damage year in year out. That is why the citizens of Little Rock have always used emergency board up services to prevent more damages.  here are some historic floods that have hit the capital of Arkansas:

Floods of 1927 and 1937

Floods have heavily hit Little Rock, Arkansas, for quite some time, but two major flood disasters stand out up to date. These floods are the famous Mississippi Valley floods of 1927, and the Ohio-Mississippi valley floods of 1937. Around 1926 almost every single river in Ohio, Mississippi, as well as Missouri, were all-time high and set a new record of flooding. Levee floods left approximately two million acres of arable farm in Little Rock flooded in 1927. In 1937 there were fewer floods and little Levee breaks. Still, unfortunately, there was a deliberate spillway as well as the use of fuse plug levees by the federal government, which left nearly a million productive agricultural acres of land flooded in Arkansas. The peak period for the two flood disasters in Arkansas was April for the 1927 disaster and midwinter, January to February, for the 1937 flood disaster.

Based on the American Red Cross data and estimations around, 208,965 people recorded for aid in 1927 at Little Rock as well as entire Arkansas alone, while in 1937, approximately 37,574 assistance cases were reported. In 1927 floods households that were damaged and destroyed by floods stood at 85,481, and in the 1937 disaster, the number rose by 404.

The most significant destruction of 1927 Arkansas river floods to Little Rocks was the Baring Cross Bridge, which was constructed around 1877 and was washed away on April 21, 1927, by floods. Though it was a disaster, its management after reconstruction moved to Missouri Pacific, which had to rebuild it and opened it again on February 2, 1929.

Eastern Oklahoma and Western Arkansas in May 1990 experienced a higher amount of spring rains, which led to floods in Little Rock, red rivers, and the white river. The flooding was caused mainly by overflow from excess flood releases from several dams released to Lake Eufaula, lake Tacoma, and lake Beaver in Arkansas. This flood release, combined with massive river runoff spillage, caused havoc and disaster in Little Rock and other Arkansas regions.

Floods of 2008

March and April 2008 saw massive rainfall events fill the five U.S. Army Corps of Engineers White River reservoirs to record levels. It made it necessary as well as an emergency to release the spillway to Beaver lake and three other dams. These spillways flooded the lower white river affecting Little Rock and other Arkansas regions up to the summer of 2008. The U.S Army Corps continued with spillway up to December of 2009 and flooding the affected areas up to 2011.

Flood of 2019

Between May and June of 2019, Arkansas river flooded due to heavy sequential rainfall in the south and central united states, affecting the Little Rock almost every department and aspect of the city. The floods saw 16 parks as well as other facilities affected and brought to a halt. It flooded the streets, soccer fields, golf courses, parking lots, baseball fields, volleyball courts, and other facilities, which prompted the city authorities to close them down for public safety. This Arkansas river 2019 flood saw the Little Rocks city push the animals in the zoo. They usually didn’t go to keep them safe.