More than 70 dogs rescued from Arkansas animal shelter after Barry's rain triggers flooding
Floodwaters swamped the Humane Society of Clark County Monday. The shelter is asking for donations and for people living in the area of Arkadelphia, Arkansas to home as many as 60 dogs until the shelter can be repaired.
Barry continues its move further inland, weakening as it pushes north but drenching areas that lie in its path with heavy rainfall and causing flooding in parts of Illinois.
The powerful storm has weakened since making landfall in Louisiana as a hurricane on Saturday, and had been downgraded to a tropical rainstorm on Monday. The flood threat remains high as the storm is expected to expand farther to the north into the mid-Mississippi valley and lower Ohio valley.
"Barry has moved well away from Arkansas at this point. Barry’s poorly defined center is over southern Illinois as of Tuesday evening. There are lines of heavy thunderstorms located over eastern Ohio and from central Indiana to far southern Illinois," AccuWeather Senior Meteorologist Frank Strait said of the storm's position as of late Tuesday evening.
A third is over southern lower Michigan, causing flooding around the Detroit metro area, according to Strait.
"For example, 4.02 inches of rainfall was reported in 90 minutes near Ypsilanti, Michigan. There will continue to be a risk for flooding from any of the slow moving downpours that Barry will produce over the Midwest overnight on Tuesday, moving into New York and Pennsylvania after midnight. Locally damaging winds cannot be ruled out with any thunderstorm as well," Strait said.
Earlier this week, Louisiana felt the brunt of Barry's rainfall with a total as high as 23.43 inches reported in the town of Ragley. AccuWeather meteorologists predicted an AccuWeather Local StormMax™ of 24 inches of rain could fall in some isolated places as Barry unleashed its tropical rains. The Mississippi Valley was also among areas hit the hardest by Barry.
As Louisiana and Mississippi continue to experience the aftermath of the storm, including widespread flooding, floodwaters have inundated parts of Arkansas.
The tropical rainstorm dumped 6 inches of rain on Arkadelphia, Arkansas, in just seven hours. Floodwaters swamped the local Humane Society, leading to the death of one dog on Monday night.
“SOS!!!!!!!!!!!! We are flooded. It’s on the building !!! We need help !! Can any of y’all keep a dog or two at your houses????? It’s bad y’all!!! Help help help !!” the Humane Society of Clark County wrote in a Facebook post on Tuesday morning.
Janie Allen with the Humane Society of Clark County said that dogs and puppies were swimming for their lives as the floodwaters moved into their kennels.
"We're pretty deep back here, it has literally ruined food, our medical supplies are ruined,” Allen said.
At one point, the floodwater was knee-deep in the facility. The no-kill shelter has about 30 dogs and just invested in upgrades.
"We had just remodeled as you can see. we had put a lot of money into remodeling electrical work and updating electrical work and plumbing," Allen said. "we're kind of back to square one now."
The shelter later shared on Tuesday that more than 70 dogs are now in foster homes, saying "we are so blessed!"
"This community has come to our rescue. Donations. Cleaning. Fostering. It’s unbelievable !!!! We still have a way to go, but things are coming along," the Humane Society said in a Facebook post on Tuesday.
Flood watches and warnings were in effect in southern Arkansas on Tuesday morning. At the Monticello Airport, 4.21 inches of rain was recorded, and 3.87 inches of rain was recorded at the Stuttgart Municipal Airport.
Several roads and highways remain flooded and closed in Arkansas into Tuesday, according to the Arkansas Department of Transportation (DOT). A number of accidents, stalled and disabled vehicles have been reported into Tuesday morning. Local officials urge motorists to use caution when headed out into the potentially dangerous conditions.
The heavy rainfall across southwestern Arkansas will likely cause major flooding on the Little Missouri River at Boughton, according to the National Weather Service (NWS) office in Little Rock, Arkansas. The river rose nearly 10 feet overnight, and is forecast to crest 25 feet, which would be the highest since 1950.
Barry will continue to move over the region into Wednesday, and local flooding is likely in impacted areas. The storm will continue to move farther north midweek.
“There will be pockets of heavy rainfall across the Ohio and Tennessee valleys today into tomorrow, but will not be as concentrated as the past couple of days,” Walker said.
Barry dumped heavy rainfall on Mississippi and Louisiana over the weekend. The highly anticipated storm prompted local officials to issue warnings and states of emergency well in advance of the storm's landfall.
More than a foot of rain fell in a number of locations in Louisiana, prompting mandatory evacuations and water rescues. More than 90 people had been rescued in 11 Louisiana parishes, but there were no reports of weather-related fatalities, according to Louisiana Gov. John Bel Edwards.
However, despite the storm impacts, several Louisiana officials stress that the storm could have played out much worse.
On Sunday after the storm had largely moved through the state, Edwards held a news conference, where he said that he was “extremely grateful” that the storm had not caused the disastrous floods that had earlier been forecast.
“This was a storm that could’ve played out very, very differently,” Edwards said. “We leaned forward. We were prepared for the risks, the threats that were forecasted and we’re thankful that the worst-case scenario did not happen. But understand here in Louisiana if nowhere else, that will not always be the case.”
New Orleans Mayor LaToya Cantrell passed along a similar message at a news conference on Sunday, saying the city was “beyond lucky” that rainfall in New Orleans did not reach the levels of early predictions.
While heavy rain was the largest threat from the storm, it wasn't the only impact, as strong winds and potential tornadoes knocked down trees and power lines. At the height of the storm, over 150,000 customers across Louisiana had lost power, according to PowerOutage.US.
Impacts from Barry were felt along the Florida Panhandle as well. Deadly rip currents continued to plague beaches along the Gulf into Sunday, prompting a number of water rescues. One person died as a result of the strong rip currents, Panama City Beach, Florida, officials report.
Additional reporting by Chaffin Mitchell, Adriana Navarro, Brian Lada, and Kevin Byrne.
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