Flash Flood — Scott, Arkansas

2013-05-30 to 2013-05-31 · near Coaldale, Scott, Arkansas

Event narrative

Severe flash flooding occurred across a large part of Scott County. Soon after Midnight CDT on the 31st, two women called 911 after flooding from Mill Creek trapped them in their house at Y City. The Scott County Sheriff and a Wildlife Officer First Class from the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission responded to the call. According to the incident report by the Game and Fish Commission, the rescuers reached the house in an aluminum motorboat, removed one woman from the house and put here in their boat. As they were trying to rescue the second woman, the house collapsed due to the force of the floodwaters. The boat then capsized, drowning the three people in the boat, and the woman in the house also drowned. (The sheriff was a 41 year-old male, the wildlife officer was a 32 year-old male, and the women in the house were females 60 and 65 years old.) It took until June 2nd to recover the bodies of all the victims. Recovery operations were greatly hampered by another round of heavy rain and flooding on the morning of June 1st. Altogether, about 20 people had to be rescued from the flood waters. U.S. 71, the main north-south route through western Arkansas, flooded at Y City. The flooding caused a car to be washed off the highway and a 42 year-old woman in the car drowned. Her husband survived, but had to cling to the bank of a stream for 6 hours before being rescued. Several other cars were washed off roads, as well, but the motorists survived. Arkansas 28 was washed out at Little Cedar Creek (10 miles east of Y City), Big Cedar Creek (12 miles east of Y City), and the Fourche LaFave River (16.5 miles east of Y City). Numerous county roads and bridges were washed out. For the 24-hour period ending at 7 AM on the 31st, Parks measured 7.78 inches of rain and Waldron picked up 5.26 inches. Houses were flooded at a number of places, including Y City, Boles, and Parks. The American Red Cross indicated 7 houses and 15 mobile homes were destroyed, 9 houses and 4 mobile home had major damage, 13 houses and 3 mobile homes had minor damage, and 14 houses and 8 mobile homes were affected. A fiber optic cable was knocked out of service. As a result, there was no landline phone service, cell phone service, or internet service to most of the county for about 24 hours from the 30th into the 31st.

Wider weather episode

The approach of low pressure aloft triggered numerous thunderstorms from the 30th into the early morning hours of the 31st. Tornadoes, severe thunderstorms, and flash flooding occurred. The flooding killed six people, and the tornadoes killed one. The same weather system caused severe storms and flash flooding again on June 1st. For the 24-hour period ending at 7 AM on the 31st, a band of very heavy rain fell from Waldron and Mena to Conway and Little Rock and then on to Newport and Augusta. Within this band, rainfall amounts of 3 to 5 inches were common, and isolated totals exceeded 7 inches. Also on the evening of the 30th, 3.09 inches of rain fell in one hour at Little Rock, breaking the all-time record for the greatest amount of rain in one hour in the city. The previous record was 3.00 inches on May 26, 1955. President Barack Obama declared federal disasters in these counties: Cleburne, Independence, Montgomery, Polk, Scott, Searcy, Stone, Van Buren, and Woodruff.

View location on OpenStreetMap → (34.9000, -94.4300)

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 445901. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.