Heavy rains in Arkansas are causing the possibility of flooding as levees have been breached along the Arkansas and Mississippi rivers.
The Dardanelle Levee on the Arkansas River breached early Friday and water is moving quickly, meteorologist Jeff Hood of the National Weather Service told CNN.
The breach has gotten significantly larger in the last hour. New video here showing the turbulent flow through the breach of the Dardanelle Levee near Holla Bend and comparison between 3am and 2am. #flooding #arwx #ArkansasRiverFlood2019 pic.twitter.com/RE01SnGqHx
— Brian Emfinger (@brianemfinger) May 31, 2019
Late Thursday, Yell County Judge Mark Thone told residents to evacuate, KATV reported.
Flooding in Arkansas has already impacted more than 500 homes in the state, state emergency spokeswoman Melody Daniel told CNN.
"This is looking to be record breaking all along the Arkansas River, and this is something we have never seen before," Daniel told the cable network.
According to the National Weather Service, eight states along the Mississippi River have experienced the longest stretch of flooding since the Great Flood of 1927, USA Today reported.
Gov. Asa Hutchinson sent a letter to President Donald Trump requesting that he declare a state of emergency for at least 15 counties in the state, CNN reported.
Here's a 5 AM AR River update. At Dardanelle, a decrease in height can be seen but a similar decrease in height was observed at Ozark over the last 12-18 hours. There may be some influence by the levee failure near Holla Bend but the drop isn't solely from that. #arwx #ARFlood19 pic.twitter.com/mQ4uikyf9O
— NWS Little Rock (@NWSLittleRock) May 31, 2019