Governors in Arkansas and Kentucky declared states of emergency. "By the time we realized what was happening, it was too dangerous to sandbag," Butler County Presiding Commissioner Ed Strenfel said.
Sandbagging wasn't an option the river, spurred on by 10 inches or more of rain since last week, simply rose too quickly. If the levee were to give way, many of those homes would be left uninhabitable. No deaths or serious injuries have been reported.įamilies forced to flee their homes Monday watched as murky floodwater began creeping into their yards and homes. The hotels in town filled up quickly, and 300 people took shelter at the Black River Coliseum, the town's 500-seat concert venue, Rolland said. Unfortunately, extraordinary storms come along," Rolland said. "Unfortunately, with few communities having those sorts of resources, you build them to the level you believe will be adequate. Rolland said street department workers hurriedly filled small boats with sandbags overnight and were able to sure up a vulnerable section of the levee in Popular Bluff.Ĭrews rescued 59 people in 1½ hours late Monday after water spilled over the dam.Ī full-scale levee breach could force the evacuation of some 6,000 homes from Poplar Bluff to Qulin and destroy or severely damage 500 homes in Poplar Bluff and its outskirts, Rolland said.Īlready, 23 small businesses in the area's flood plain have taken on water, he said.įlooding three years ago damaged or destroyed hundreds of homes in Poplar Bluff, raising questions about whether the levee is capable of protecting the town during times of heavy rainfall. More showers and thunderstorms were expected in the area on Tuesday, giving crews that worked overnight to sure-up the levee no rest. The girl's parents, who were in the room with her, were both injured. "It wouldn't surprise me if we were to end up with a count of 10 or 12 tornadoes by the time all the surveys are completed," Robinson said.Īuthorities in Mississippi say a 3-year-old girl in the city of McComb was killed when a storm from the same system toppled a large tree into her family's home. John Robinson, a weather service warning coordination meteorologist, said it could take days. The National Weather Service office in North Little Rock sent survey teams to Vilonia and nearby Garland County to investigate the damage from Monday's storm and assess how much of it was caused by tornados or straight-line winds. And flooding in the northwest of the state caused at least four other deaths. The storms spawned at least one tornado Monday in Arkansas that killed four people and carved a wide swath of destruction through the town of Vilonia, 25 miles north Little Rock. As the worst of the system moved north and east into Illinois, Wisconsin, Kentucky and Tennessee, the region was bracing for a second round of storms expected to roll into Oklahoma and Arkansas later Tuesday. The storm system has dumped relentless rain on several states over the past week, including Arkansas, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Missouri, Mississippi and Tennessee. Jay Nixon said on CBS' "The Early Show" Tuesday. "It's a very serious threat," Missouri Gov. The already-swollen Black River was rising even further, pouring over more than three dozen spots along the levee that protects the southern part of the town of 17,000 residents in the Ozark Mountain foothills, surrounded by the Mark Twain National Forest. Authorities planned to evacuate only homes closest to the breach. Butler County Sheriff Mark Dodd said water pouring through the breach between the two towns was unlikely to make it far enough upstream to threaten Poplar Bluff, a town of 17,000 residents about 130 miles south of St.
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