Arkansas Governor Declares 57 Arkansas Counties Disaster Areas

Arkansas Gov. Mike Beebe has declared 57 of Arkansas’ 75 counties as disaster areas following recent storms and flooding.

Beebe spokesman Matt DeCample said the declaration is one of the first steps in the process of the governor preparing to file a formal request for a disaster declaration from the president in order to qualify for federal assistance.

“It is in situations that we feel we might qualify for some federal assistance,” he said. “In a case like this we’re pretty confident we’ll reach the threshold for federal assistance.”

Federal Emergency Management teams were in the state working with the Arkansas Department of Emergency Management to assess damage, DeCample said.

The Arkansas Department of Emergency Management said 21 people have died since April 15 when storms packing tornadoes and strong straight-line winds hit the state. Seven people died in the first round of storms and 14 were killed when the second system that brought tornadoes and heavy flooding to Arkansas earlier last week.

Flooding was reported April 30 along the White River in southeastern White County, where several people fled their homes, according to Arkansas Department of Emergency Management spokesman Tommy Jackson.

“In the community of Georgetown … people have self-evacuated because highway 36 is closed because of flooding. The only way in and out of there is by boat,” Jackson said.

No injuries were reported, Jackson said.

Flooding also continued along the Black River near Pocahontas in northeast Arkansas where U.S. Highway 67 north and south of Pocahontas and U.S. Highway 63 northwest of Hoxie were closed due to flooding.

The National Weather Service called for two to more than five more inches of rain in a swath extending from northeast Texas to southwestern Kentucky that includes all but far northwest and far southeastern Arkansas over the weekend.

“Everyone knows it’s coming,” DeCample said. “We’ll take the preparations that we can, but with the size of some of the rivers we have we can’t take much more rain.”

Counties in the disaster declaration: Arkansas, Baxter, Benton, Bradley, Boone, Calhoun, Carroll, Chicot, Clark, Clay, Cleburne, Cleveland, Conway, Craighead, Crawford, Crittenden, Cross, Dallas, Desha, Drew, Faulkner, Franklin, Fulton, Garland, Grant, Hot Spring, Howard, Independence, Izard, Jackson, Jefferson, Lawrence, Lincoln, Lonoke, Madison, Marion, Mississippi, Monroe, Montgomery, Newton, Perry, Phillips, Pike, Polk, Prairie, Pulaski, Randolph, Saline, Searcy, Sharp, St. Francis, Stone, Van Buren, Washington, White, Woodruff and Yell.