LITTLE ROCK, Ark. – The Army Corps of Engineers, Little Rock District is prepared for forecasted heavy rains this week.
Since December 2015, Corps personnel have worked aggressively to ensure that reservoirs in the White River System, Beaver, Table Rock, Bull Shoals, Norfork, Greers Ferry and Clearwater, were returned to seasonal conservation levels to be readied for the typical Arkansas’ spring rainy season.
“We’ve gotten all of the White River reservoirs back to the top of conservation pools and are ready for the projected heavy rain this week,” said Mike Biggs, chief of the Hydraulics and Technical Services Branch. "We were able to evacuate all of the flood storage from December because rainfall in January and February was well below average. We had two warm, dry months. As always, we’ve been following our water control plan and have lowered the reservoirs knowing that spring is the typical rainy season. We’re not sure yet exactly where the forecasted rain will fall, but the forecast shows heavy rain will fall above and below the dams."
Even though the reservoirs are ready to do the job of catching runoff, they are not intended to and cannot prevent all flooding. Rather, the dams were designed to reduce the peak of the flood. Those living around the reservoirs or downstream next to the rivers and creeks live with the risk of flooding every time it rains heavily.
“Right now, the National Weather Service forecast has the bulk of the rain falling below our White River lakes in the uncontrolled runoff area and we do not have the ability to hold that water back, said Biggs. “But the area forecasted to receive the most rainfall has shifted several times so far,” added Biggs. “That is why we never prerelease water from our reservoirs based on a forecast.”
Also, rainfall forecasts are not sufficiently accurate to base operational decisions. Engineers have to know the amount of rain, its intensity, and its duration to calculate runoff over very large areas. Just because the broadcasted weather forecast shows rain, it does not provide this level of detail.
“We’ve been releasing water from our White River reservoirs since the end of December 2015, we’ve just now gotten back to the top of our conversation pools,” said Biggs. “Even if we could pre-release to lower a reservoir in anticipation of a forecasted rain event the forecast is not accurate enough to precisely time and size our releases. If we did prerelease we could be creating more damage downstream than the actual flooding event itself.”
Residents who live in flood plains or low lying areas need to monitor the National Weather Service websites for rainfall projects and flood watches and warning with the following websites:
Central Arkansas - http://www.weather.gov/lzk
Western Arkansas - http://www.weather.gov/tsa
Southern Arkansas - http://www.weather.gov/shv
Northern Arkansas/Southern Missouri - http://www.weather.gov/sgf
Lake elevation forecasts can be found at the Little Rock District water management website: http://www.swl-wc.usace.army.mil/pages/reports/remote/lakfcst.htm.
River flows can be found at the Little Rock District water management website: http://www.swl-wc.usace.army.mil/pages/reports/remote/ark4cast.htm.
Daily river and lake information can be obtained at www.swl-wc.usace.army.mil or the Corps’ mobile App which can be found in mobile App stores by searching for USACE Little Rock.