Although no injuries or fatalities are reported from last night’s heavy rainfall, Yellville, Flippin and other Marion County areas are picking up the pieces following flooding that happened in the early morning hours.
Crews were called a little before 4 a.m. to reports of rapidly rising water, particularly in the Creekside Nursing Facility in Yellville, when it was reported the water was breaching outside walls and ended up being waist-deep for responders providing rescues.
“We got notified early this morning that Flippin needed assistance with a mobile home park on Park Street,” explained Dwayne McFarland, Summit fire chief and Marion County Search and Rescue board member. “Our Swift Water Team went over to assist them and while we were doing that, we received a call from the nursing home to help start evacuating the residents from that facility.”
He explained the water at that point was coming in from the outside walls and quick decisions had to be made.
"We ended up having to do forced rescues into some of the rooms because it was coming in quickly,” he said. “The Flippin Fire Department performed several rescues and pulled a lot of people out, and we were there to assist with the evacuations as well. We were able to get those people out of there and get them to safety.”
Fortunately, McFarland reported, though there were a few rescues that needed to be done, there were no fatalities or any serious injuries during the events.
“No one was killed or hurt, thankfully,” he said, “We were just glad to be able to lend a hand.”
McFarland said he has been in Marion County for more than 30 years, and he does not remember a time when the flooding was this bad.
“Rain was running out of my rain gauge that is designed to hold about 6 inches of water,” he stated. “It rained hard all night long, and I have never seen it this deep in Yellville. It actually took the fence out behind the courthouse building and lacked about a foot from coming over the bridge.”
Aside from the fact that conditions were just right to create the flooding scenario, there are some things people can do to ensure that everyone is safe, McFarland said.
“The biggest thing I hope people can take away from a situation like this is, we want to keep everybody safe during an emergency situation, and when it comes to flooding, don’t put yourself or emergency responders in danger by staying behind when you need to get out,” McFarland admonished. “There are some who choose not to evacuate, and we want them to consider the first responders who will potentially have to rescue them if the waters get high enough. We want all of them to be safe.”
He went to further explain that one in five rescue- and first-responder personnel perish in swift water rescues, but this can be avoided by heeding the call to evacuate instead of staying behind… until its too late.
City of Flippin Mayor Heith Hogan echoes McFarland’s opinion that this weather event is one of the worst flooding situations he’s ever seen for the area.
“It was about 3:45 a.m. that I received a call about a substantial amount of rain that was causing flooding problems and trapping some individuals in their residences,” Hogan stated. “We started evacuating people from homes and the hotel as well. We have had high waters before, but nothing like this. I’ve been here 23 years and never seen it like this.”
Hogan surmised the area received such a large amount of rain that it didn’t have time to give way to proper runoff, leading to the flooding seen last night.
“I just want to voice my appreciation to my personnel: the fire chief and department, the police chief and department, as well as the public works department and how quickly they went into action to go to these different locations and assist these people,” Hogan said. “They were very precise in their response to the people who needed rescue and evacuation. I also want to thank the County Judge Jason Stumph for offering his services and offering personnel and resources for Flippin.”
All in all, about 20 to 25 people were evacuated from the residential area and the hotel in town, and efforts continued throughout Wednesday to assess further damage and safety concerns.
“We had to go to different entities and knock on doors to wake people up and make sure they received the help to get transported to our FEMA shelters,” Hogan explained. “The FEMA shelter is on the school campus, and we had to wade through water to get to it.”
One home was completely taken off of its foundation during the flooding, but thankfully, no one was injured during the frightening event.
McFarland explained that the nursing home residents and others who had to be evacuated are safely being housed in other facilities to ensure they get warm, dry clothes and food and will only return when the proper cleanup measures are taken and repairs are made.
“All the people and residents are safe,” McFarland said. “It was a mass evacuation procedure that you plan for and hope you never have to use. We just thank all who were involved in this effort, including the Summit School Buses, Baxter Regional who came and offered their assistance with their handicap-accessible vans to get the people where they needed to be.”
Damage assessment still is being conducted at the press time, and The Bulletin will provide additional details as they come available.
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