Severe storms that ripped through the central US left at least seven people dead in the state of Arkansas, officials said Tuesday, as flash flood warnings prompted mass evacuations in neighbouring Missouri. Strong storm winds and torrential downpours have slammed a swath of central US states in recent weeks, saturating the ground and leaving river levels precariously high.
Authorities Tuesday had begun evacuating 1,000 people along the swollen Black River near the Missouri city of Poplar Bluff, home to some 17,000 people, as a compromised levee reportedly failed at four points but likely to flood populated but rural areas, CNN reported, citing the city deputy police chief Jeff Rolland. The National Weather Service (NWS) has already issued a flash flood warning for three counties in the south-west of the state.
"The levee along the Black River from Poplar Bluff... remains compromised in several locations," the NWS warned in an advisory. "A combination of heavy rainfall over the last five days... along with anticipated rainfall over the next 24 to 48 hours" has prompted the river stage of 21.2 feet (6.4 meters), easily eclipsing the river flood stage of 16.0 feet (4.8 meters), said the NWS. The local police force had performed 59 water rescues on Monday alone, Rolland told CNN.