The Ouachita River and Bayou Bartholomew have both risen above flood stage this month.
Whether or not this will cause flooding in Morehouse Parish depends on how much rain we get in coming weeks.
The Ouachita reached flood stage in Monroe on Monday for the first time since the Tensas Basin levee system was constructed.
“It’s unprecedented for this time of year,” said John Stringer, executive director of the Tensas Basin Levee District. “We have a lot of water right now that we hope to move out of the Basin.”
The Tensas Basin Levee District was created by the state legislature in 1884 to construct, maintain and protect the levee systems in its jurisdiction.
Many of the Tensas Basin levees were enlarged and improved with federal funding from the Flood Control Act of 1928, in response to the great Mississippi River flood on 1927.
Flood stage for the Ouachita is 40 feet. Stringer said as of Thursday, the river was at 40.5 feet in Monroe and nine feet above flood stage at Felsenthal in Arkansas.
Morehouse Parish residents should not be alarmed about the possibility of flooding to the degree seen in Feb. 1991, when the river flooded in Arkansas and rain soaked the ground in northeast Louisiana.
“It was a combination of events then,” said Stringer. “Most of the problems in Morehouse would come from Bayou Bartholomew and tributaries.”
Stringer said Bayou Bartholomew was at 22 feet in Beekman as of noon Thursday. That’s seven feet above flood stage for the bayou -- which is 15 feet -- but should not be cause for alarm.
“Bartholomew was just over 30 feet in ‘91,” said Stringer. “We’re a long way from that now.”
The levee district has closed the flood gates on the bayou and the water level is falling, he said.
Stringer said the area around Hangout Road will probably flood again, as it did 18 years ago when residents cruised down the road in motorboats instead of cars.
The district is looking at the chance of more rain Monday and perhaps the end of next week.
“How much longer this will last, we don’t know,” said Stringer. “These are events we have no control over.”
