NPR

'It's Never Done This': Arkansas River Keeps Flooding, Testing Levees And Patience

The Arkansas River is rising well above its previous record, and it's forecast to stay that way for days. That's putting pressure on old levees, and making it hard for some residents to evacuate.
John and Louise Hutchins stand in their garage in Fort Smith, Arkansas, behind a homemade sandbag barrier. They chose not to evacuate, in part because they did not think their neighborhood would flood.

The Arkansas River just keeps rising. The usually-placid tributary of the Mississippi has become a bloated torrent water carrying entire trees downstream, drowning riverfront property and halting commerce for hundreds of miles.

Arkansas Governor Asa Hutchinson the high water is costing the state economy an estimated $23 million each day. The river is to crest on Wednesday in Little Rock, Ark., and there is so much water moving downstream that it will likely be more than a week before floodwaters begin to recede from

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