Associated Press

LITTLE ROCK — Officials predicted Thursday the White River could reach 100-year flood levels as it moves through Arkansas' eastern plains toward the Mississippi River, destroying wheat fields, threatening livestock and otherwise causing untold damage.

Photo: An American flag is covered by flood waters in a rural neighborhood outside of Des Arc, Ark. The White River flooded low-lying areas of Des Arc on Monday and have continued to rise, as other towns along the river were warned they could suffer their worst flooding in more than a quarter-century. (By Mike Wintroath, AP)

Jaysson Funkhouser, a surface water specialist with the U.S. Geological Survey, said preliminary figures showed the White River surge from last week's storms and flooding upstream could reach the 100-year flood stage in coming days.

The last flood of similar size was in December 1982, when parts of Arkansas saw more than a foot of rain in a single day. That storm did hundreds of millions of dollars in damage.

The flooding that persisted Thursday in Arkansas was triggered by March 17 storms in the Midwest, and federal and state officials have only been able to assess the damage in places where the water has receded. Thirty-five counties — nearly half the state — have been declared federal disaster areas. One person was killed in the storms, and another remains missing.

The National Weather Service issued a flash-flood warning Thursday for points on the White River downstream from Des Arc, and forecasters said flooding at Clarendon in Monroe County could be the worst in 25 years. Weather service hydrologist Steve Bays said residents along the White River National Wildlife Refuge near Clarendon would see water rise a foot a day.

"One thing that we are trying to do around here is keep people concerned about what's going on but not inflict a panic, and it's a fine line. It certainly bears monitoring by people along the river," Bays said.

Meanwhile, Funkhouser said flows on the White River near DeValls Bluff reached 163,000 cubic feet per second Wednesday, more than four times the river's normal speed there. But as the river flows downstream, it floods low-lying fields and slows down, he said.

"It's like a huge reservoir," Funkhouser said. "It releases it slower over a longer period of time."

On the Arkansas River, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers recorded flows up to 179,000 cubic feet per second Thursday morning at Little Rock and shipping virtually stopped along the waterway, a major route to the Mississippi River.

"There's some movement, but it will probably pick up as the flows come down probably late next week," corps spokesman P.J. Spaul said. "But that's all depending on the flows continuing to decline."

Photo: A no parking sign sits in flood waters, Wednesday, March 26, 2008, in a small community near Clarendon, Ark. Water continued to rise Wednesday in Arkansas, where federal officials have begun to gather their first damage assessments in the week-long floods that have displaced residents and soaked homes and businesses in nearly half the state.

Barge traffic on the Arkansas River, the state's largest, typically stops when waters reach flows of 150,000 cubic feet a second.

All along the river, floodwaters surround empty grain elevators waiting for a harvest that may not come. Last year, Arkansas produced about 28.7 million bushels of wheat. Now though, muddy waters have soaked wheat fields for days, taking with it expensive fertilizer treatments already applied to the soil.

Some of the wheat, green this time of year and looking like tall grass, has survived, said wheat expert Jason Kelley of the University of Arkansas Cooperative Extension Service. However, wheat under water for a week or more likely won't survive.

"You could really tell the plant had been suffering," Kelley said. "They were actually wilted and looked like they were running out of water, but they had no oxygen."

Kelley said any real estimate on damage will have to wait until waters drain out of the fields.

The flood also concerns cattle farmers, who say their animals may become infected by anthrax or other diseases carried up by the high waters.

The Federal Emergency Management Agency said damage assessments were completed in Benton, Madison, Marion, Stone and Van Buren counties in north Arkansas, but the figures were not immediately available. Officials expected teams to complete their surveys in Carroll, Logan and Baxter counties Thursday.

Meanwhile, FEMA administrator R. David Paulison planned to tour Arkansas communities damaged by floodwaters Monday, spokesman Bob Alvey said. The trip will be Paulison's second to the state in almost a month since he visited Atkins to view damage caused by a Feb. 5 tornado.

With waters still rising under sunny skies, forecasters called for a 50% chance of thunderstorms Friday and a quarter-inch of rain or more.

Copyright 2008 The Associated Press.

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