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Monday 27 May 2019
Historic flooding predicted along Arkansas River

sas River over the coming businesses will flood by the of Emergency Manage-
week. time the river crests there ment spokeswoman Melo-
The National Weather Ser- Tuesday at 42.5 feet (13 dy Daniel.
vice said in the statement meters). “The river had risen and
that levee “over topping” Across the river from Fort spread to a point where
is likely with “significant im- Smith, the tiny town of Mof- the lock and dam building
pacts to life and property fett, Oklahoma, population itself was no longer acces-
across a very large area.” about 120, was submerged sible by boat or road,” said
The Arkansas River reached by Saturday afternoon, Se- Daniel, who took video of
38.2 feet (11.6 meters) on quoyah County Emergen- the rescue at the Trimble
Sunday near Fort Smith, Ar- cy Management Director Lock and Dam, located on
kansas, surpassing the his- Steve Rutherford told the the county line of Crawford
toric crest of 38.1 (11.6) feet Times Record in Fort Smith. and Sebastian counties.
in April 1945. In downtown Van Buren, She said there were also
Spokeswoman Karen San- Arkansas, just northeast of several road closures due
tos said the city of 80,000 Fort Smith, Rickey Jones, to high water.
residents that’s on the bor- co-owner of Broken- The water flowing into the
der with Oklahoma was in Joe’s Screen Printing, was Arkansas River has come
Volunteers fill sand bags at the soccer field parking lot in Chaffee “preparedness and warn- among several business from rains in southeast
Crossing, Ark., Saturday, May 25, 2019, for distribution throughout ing mode.” She said one owners who put sandbags Kansas and northeastern
the area for flood prone areas around homes. home was completely in front of their entrances. Oklahoma, said National
Associated Press submerged and about 500 “We’re going to be stack- Weather Service meteo-
Associated Press meteorologists on Sunday homes either have water ing things as high as we rologist Willie Gilmore.
FORT SMITH, Ark. (AP) — predicted will be the worst very close or in them. can in here, taking out “All that water funneled
Residents in parts of Arkan- flooding in recorded history Authorities predict hun- electronics and helping out down into the tributaries
sas were preparing for what along parts of the Arkan- dreds more homes and our neighbors,” Jones said. that go into the Arkansas
On Sunday afternoon, a River,” Gilmore said.
National Guard helicop- In Tulsa, authorities advised
ter was sent to rescue two residents of some neigh-
Army Corps of Engineers borhoods on Sunday to
workers who had become consider leaving for higher
trapped in a building as ground because the river is
the Arkansas River rose, stressing the city’s old levee
said Arkansas Department system.q

Rep. John Lewis tells

graduates to ‘get in trouble’

Civil rights icon and U.S. Rep. John Lewis delivers the
commencement address during the Framingham State
University’s undergraduate commencement ceremony at the
DCU Center in Worcester, Mass., on Sunday, May 26, 2019.
Associated Press
Associated Press to question the status quo.
WORCESTER, Mass. (AP) — “They said, ‘Boy, that’s the
U.S. Rep. John Lewis urged way it is. Don’t get in the
graduates of Framingham way, don’t get in trouble,’”
State University in Massa- Lewis said. “But I was in-
chusetts on Sunday to “get spired to get in trouble:
in trouble” and to build Good trouble, necessary
“bridges, not walls.” trouble.
The Georgia Democrat, Lewis was arrested dozens
a veteran of the 1960s of times and was physically
civil rights movement, was attacked during the civil
the keynote speaker at rights movement, but told
the school’s commence- students to follow the non-
ment at the DCU Center in violent examples of Gandhi
Worcester. and Martin Luther King Jr.
He hearkened back to his Inspired by King, he joined
days growing up in a seg- and then rose to become
regated South, and re- a leader of the civil rights
membered being told not movement. q