Flood — Lawrence, Arkansas

2017-05-01 to 2017-05-05 · near Black Rock, Lawrence, Arkansas

Event narrative

Heavy rain brought the Black River at Black Rock to just under record levels in early May. Homes and businesses suffered minor damage from the flooding. Many road and bridges were also flooded and damaged. Thousands of acres of cropland was also flooded. The Lawrence County Dive team performed 14 rescues in the first couple days of May. They rescued people from their vehicle on County Road 514 on May 2nd. The dive team rescued two people from a home on May 3rd.

Wider weather episode

Very heavy rain fell across the Eleven Point River, Current River and Black River basins in Missouri and Arkansas at the end of April into early. As a result major river flooding occured in Clay, Randolph and Lawrence counties into early May. The levee along the Black River east of Pocahontas failed resulting in flash flooding across parts of Randolph and Lawrence counties. A major disaster declaration was granted for Clay, Lawrence and Randolph Counties.

View location on OpenStreetMap → (36.1374, -91.0983)

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 698113. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.