Record floods breach Ark. levee, overtop 2 in Missouri

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. -- Relentless flooding in the central U.S. on Friday inundated communities and damaged or spilled over levees on three major rivers in two states, and authorities discovered the body of a drowning victim at a Missouri lake.

The fast-flowing Arkansas River smashed a 40-foot hole in a levee in rural western Arkansas, causing water to spill into a nearby community. In northeast Missouri, a levee was overtopped on the Mississippi River, and another levee was topped on the Missouri River in the central part of the state.

The flooding has been building for days because of heavy rainfall upstream. In Arkansas, officials were warning of more potential problems on an already strained levee system.

"These levees were not built to sustain this high a flow for this long, and we are seeing problems and there more than likely will be more," said Laurie Driver, spokeswoman for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Little Rock District.

In eastern Missouri, the state Highway Patrol's Water Division reported the body of 57-year-old Lane Panasuk, of Butte, Montana, was recovered Thursday evening from Harry S. Truman Lake in Henry County, but the patrol said it did not know why he was in the water. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers had warned visitors about high water levels closing most of the campgrounds around the lake and a road over its dam.

In Arkansas, the levee breached at Dardanelle, about 60 miles northwest of Little Rock. Yell County officials had anticipated the breach and urged residents in the nearby Holla Bend area to evacuate Thursday.

The Arkansas Department of Emergency Management said crews went door to door to recommend evacuation for about 160 homes.

Yell County emergency manager Jeff Gilkey told the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette rapid currents from the river ripped a 40-foot section from the levee. Aerial video posted by the sheriff's office Friday showed water pouring through the hole.

Officials in Missouri issued a mandatory evacuation order for some residents of Howard County, where the Missouri River topped a levee. County Emergency Management co-director Bill John said the levee near Petersburg was expected to fail soon, KRCG reported. Levees in Lewis County along the Mississippi River in northeast Missouri were overtopped Thursday, flooding several thousand acres of farmland. Lewis County emergency director David Keith said no homes or businesses were impacted.

In northeastern Oklahoma, residents forced from their homes by flooding made plans to return as the river recedes. The National Weather Service said Friday the Arkansas River's level at Tulsa has dropped almost 4 feet from Wednesday's crest and will continue to recede through the weekend. Forecasters said river levels were also dropping in Muskogee, Oklahoma, about 45 miles southeast of Tulsa.

Earlier this year, about two dozen levee systems were breached or overtopped during Missouri River flooding that devastated parts of Nebraska, Iowa and Missouri.