Levees Strained as Arkansas River Stays at Record Levels

Levees Strained as Arkansas River Stays at Record Levels
A sign reading "Looters will be shot!!" sits in front of a flooded home on Turtle Bay in Fort Smith, Ark., on May 29, 2019. Ben Goff/The Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette via AP
|Updated:

The Arkansas River held steady at record levels on May 30, putting enormous pressure on aging levees and offering little relief to areas enduring historic flooding.

Officials expected hundreds of homes to flood in Fort Smith, Arkansas’ second-largest city. In nearby Van Buren, officials warned that a levee protecting a mostly rural area was “showing signs of significant leakage and deterioration.”