Monticello Live

Cobey Bray is showner playing in the snow at the Guesthouse.

Kirsten and Hunter Harrison having a snowball fight before school, Friday.

Buck, a buckeye rooster and 4-H project, sent in by Jim Hall of Jim’s Farm Stand.

Tonya Lane sent in this photo that would even be great for a Christmas Card. Read the rest of this entry »

Flood waters are finally dropping in the southwest corner of Drew County, following last week’s heavy rains.

HWY 172 in closed south of the Possum Valley Pavilion, and many county roads are still underwater, as well.

Boats were again used to move residents across flooded areas to their vehicles, and farm animals were led, as best as they could be, to higher, dryer land, although some didn’t survive.

A local farmer explained the December flood, had caught many folks unaware, since local creek flooding was followed so closely to backwater flooding from the Saline River.

The top photo shows HWY 172, still underwater, as of Saturday afternoon.  The next photo shows a flooded pasture, and an underwater fence line, north of HWY 172.

The south side of the highway is shown in the third photo, where the floodwaters stretch as far as the eye can see, into the distant forest, and beyond.

The last picture shows Ben Loveless Road, which runs north of HWY 172, just another example of the many county roads, such as Ozment Bluff Road and Gees Landing Road,  that are closed due to the slowly falling floodwaters.

The driver of this Chevy Cavalier was not injured Friday morning around 6:30, when she tried to cross an underwater section of HWY 35 North, around its intersection with HWY 133, and was washed off of the highway.

The Chevy began to leak water through the door seals before it began to float out of the roadway and into a nearby line of trees during the driver’s Christmas morning trip from Rison to Hamburg.

The driver climbed out of the car, and was picked up by family members following in another vehicle.

The roadway  remained under water Friday afternoon, as shown by the bottom photo.

These photos were taken during Thursday morning’s severe thunderstorms and flooding.

These pics were taken near the Dead Man’s Curve area, approximately two miles east of Monticello, on HWY 278.

HWY 138, better known as Winchester Road has been closed to traffic, from Airport Road, towards Dumas.

Flooding across the highway gets deeper from section to section, and the road is not passable.

Check back on MonticelloLive.com for road conditions, as the rain continues to fall.

Judge Damon Lampkin urges everyone traveling around Drew County today to use extreme caution, and watch for the many roadways that have water across them,  He also told MonticelloLive that many county roads have been closed to traffic.

According to reports, most roads in Drew County have places that are under water.  Hazardous roadways include HWY 138, HWY 278 East, HWY 35, HWY 83, as well as many city streets and county roads. 

Drew County remains under a FLASH FLOOD WATCH through Saturday morning.

1-2 inches of rain are forecast for our area out of the thunderstorm pattern.

Keep checking back to MonticelloLive for updated road and weather conditions.

At 8:20, this morning, South Main St. was re-opened, after the street was cleaned with a street sweeper, and the businesses around the square and on S. Main Street were told that they could safely re-open.

The sidewalk on the West side of Main St. next to the building remains closed, and parking on the east side of S Main is closed for 1 block.

Local businesses on the south side of the square, and on Main Street, between Gaines St. and the railroad tracks were closed Wednesday following the collapse of the old drug store building at the intersection of Gaines and Main St.

A structural engineer inspected the damaged building Tuesday, and after spending several hours in and around the structure, William M. Bollinger, on behalf of EFI Global found that “the remaining front (sections) of the building appear to have adequate structural stability for their current loadings to allow the reopening of the closed streets and front side walk.”

He also recommended the closing of the east sidewalk, next to the building, restricting use of the building, and closing the alley behind the structure until the damaged portion is removed.

The heavy rains accumulated at the back of the sloping roof, causing the roof to collapse.

No decision has been made as to the future of the building.

The back section of the former Thrifty Chicks, also known as the old Tree-0 and Apples & Amens building collapsed, shortly after noon, Tuesday afternoon, likely under the weight of heavy rain.

Monticello Police and Fire Units responded, and Drew County Deputies also assisted.

The front of the top floor was reportedly being used as an office by Judge Clifton Bond, a retired attorney and judge.

Centerpoint energy was also called to the site to turn of the natural gas supply, which was smelled immediately after the rumble of falling bricks came to an end.

The building collapse was covered on TV by KATV-7 and KLRT-16, who used photos provided by MonticelloLive.com

Channels 4 & 11 were also reported on the event.

After closing school at 1:30 Tuesday, because of heavy rains and flooding of county roads, Drew Central Schools will cancel classes on Wednesday, as well, due to concerns over bridges that have been underwater, and will need to be inspected before putting heavy vehicles like school buses on them, Superintendant Wayne Fawcett told MonticelloLive.

Monticello Schools have announced that their classes will be in session on Wednesday. 

UAM has made no announcement about any closing.

Head of the Class and Monticello Christian Academy will be having classess.

As strong thunderstorms continue to fall on southeast Arkansas, Monticello Police Dispatch wishes to advise the public that many local highways, as well as city streets are becoming dangerous, to attempt to travel.

HWY’s 172, 138, and 425 South (around the Lacey area) have had multiple complaints about water being over the roadway in areas.

Midway Route has been described as “very dangerous” in several locations.

Numerous Monticello city streets are also under water in places.

While work crews have marked some locations with signs, all dangerous spots have not been identified.

PLEASE DO NOT ATTEMPT TO CROSS FLOWING WATER ON STREETS AND ROADWAYS.

Other roadways to avoid include East McCloy and East Gaines, and E. Shelton St.

Updates will be posted on MonticelloLive.com. as the weather continues to affect Monticello and Drew County.

This photo shows an uprooted tree, approximately 5 miles north on Monticello on HWY 425.  You can compare the size of the tree to the size of the residence behind it.

These photos were taken on HWY 425, between Monticello and Montongo, Friday around noon.

A strong thunderstorm system rolled across the area, reportedly causing more damage to Bradley and Cleveland County, than to Drew County.

The photos show a downed tree, which fell across power lines, causing a nearby power pole to snap, pulling the electric line from it’s residence.

Around 6 o’clock Sunday morning, a strong thunderstorm passed through Monticello, leaving many residents without electricity.

Entergy estimates that around 1300 Drew County customers are without power, and that power will be restored to most customers by midday.

The primary area affected is east of Hyatt St, both on the north and south ends of Monticello.

Please do not call the police dept. to report power outages.  They also are without electricity, and are running on backup generators.

To report an outage, call Entergy at 1-800- Entergy, or 1-800-368-3749.

Following last week’s strong thunderstorm, most damage has been repaired and/or replaced.  However one trash can lid still hasn’t found it’s home yet.

Also, one of the roadside signs across from Young’s Country Cooking & B-B-Q was blown down.

The National Weather Service issued a SEVERE THUNDERSTORM WARNING for Drew County Thursday evening, which left storm damage as the strong system swept across the area.

Damage  was reported in Monticello, as well as the eastern half of the county. Read the rest of this entry »

Top, left-large limb in jail courtyard.

Top, right, N. Hyatt Street.

Allen Street at N. Gabbert.

Godbold Street at Cooper.

HWY 425 & 278, with no lights.

Tree on N. Main.

Transformer on N. Main.

Car hit by tree on S. Wilmar Road.

The National Weather Service issued multiple severe thunderstorm warnings for Drew County last night.

Strong winds caused downed power lines and trees (like this huge oak that was one of many across HWY 278 East) on the eastern side of Drew County, and closed HWY 278 East, as well as the neaby Sixteen Section Road.  Rabb Road, Garnett Road, and Collins 3rd Street also had trees and/or power lines down, around the 8-10 o’clock time period.

The city of  Monticello seems to have only had strong winds, with little or no reported damage, while most of the damage seems to be on the eastern portion of the county.

County and state road crews were out clearing roadways, and Drew County Deputies continued to patrol, locating other blocked roadways.

With all of the extreme heat that has been over Drew County for the last week, I heard someone say, “I wish it would rain.” 

Their wish came true around 5:30 Tuesday, when a severe thunderstorm rolled south from Lincoln county, dropping a hard, fast rain over Monticello and the surrounding area.

The thunderstorm brought down trees on Baines Street and Creekwood Dr., as well as causing water to back up into local roadways for a short time, on West McCloy, South Main, and even West Gaines, among others.

The rain left as quickly as it started, and near record heat will return today, with heat indexes over 100 degrees again.

 

 

Flooding to cropland has been very severe in Drew County in 2009.  Many  farmers had to replant 75-100 percent of their cotton crop. Several thousand acres of soybeans and rice are being replanted, and vegetable crops such as tomatoes have been severely affected also.

Livestock have even been affected because of loss of grazing with pastures being under water. Crops that have survived the rainfall are yellowed, stunted, and far behind where they should be. With the recent rainfall over the weekend replanting and even the initial planting of crops are severely delayed.

This delay causes several concerns such as yield loss, insect, and disease problems due to the late planting and pushing harvest later into fall causing an increased possibility of weather problems during harvest. Read the rest of this entry »

Click photos to enlarge.

Top photos-around 4:15, a tree fell on N. Gabbert, landing on a truck being driven by Doug Harton.  “I just saw limb coming toward me, and I wasn’t going to stop,” Harton told those at the scene. “I just drove on through it.”

#3–McKiever Pharmacy’s front awning.

#4–Crushed car, that was under a tree from last week’s tornado.  Here’s the photo before the tree was removed.

#5–N. Cooper St., water rising, sandbags in place.

#6, #7, #8, & #9–Flooding on Burton Road,

#10–4 o’clock storm clouds rolling into Monticello, bringing more rain and flooding.

Here are photos of last week’s tornado damage photos, including the fairgrounds buildings.