Torrential upstream rains. The Arkansas River rising at Webbers Falls. Record-breaking crest predictions. Highway and bridge closures between Fort Smith, Van Buren and Oklahoma.
Sound familiar? Must be 1945.
The record Arkansas River flood that crested at 40.79 overnight on May 31 at the Van Buren gauge draws striking parallels with river floods in the 1940s that submerged parts of Fort Smith and Van Buren. And like the transportation, river levels and weather patterns, lifelong residents remember the community has always stepped up to help those in need.
"Whenever a crisis situation would happen like flooding, people would rally to support, clean up, provide food and shelter," said Fort Smith Mayor George McGill, who lived in the city when it flooded in 1950 and 1959. "We've always responded that way."
The then-record area flood hit Fort Smith in April 1945 and swelled the Arkansas River to 38.1 feet. Headlines in the Fort Smith Times Record on April 15 detailed 12-inch rains in Oklahoma, the river rising almost 16 feet overnight in Webbers Falls and highways closures. The river in 2019 flooded Webbers Falls and hurled two barges at Lock and Dam 16, sending panic downstream.
A headline in the Fort Smith Times Record on April 16, 1945 — the day the river crested at the Van Buren gauge — confirmed all but one highway into Oklahoma was closed. Both lanes of U.S. 64 on May 26, 2019, were closed after floodwaters rose to dangerous levels.
Another headline in the newspaper that day detailed the river, which the day before was at 37.2 feet, wouldn't likely rise much higher. The lede to that article read, "Tense Fort Smith, braced in a finish fight against the flood, welcomed noon word from the weather bureau the Arkansas River probably would crest at 39 feet."
"The things that happen during floods are all the same. They’re going to displace people, they’ll cause fear, they’ll cause anxiety, they’ll cause suffering," McGill said.
Yet another flood headline that day read, "Fill Bath Tubs and Other Containers With Water, Officials Urge." Lifelong Fort Smith-area resident Sue Stranathan said people who lived in Fort Smith during the river flood of 1943, which had a crest of 38 feet, had their water supply between Lake Fort Smith and the city itself cut off.
Stranathan, who was 12 in 1943 and lived near what is now Phoenix Avenue and what was then outside city limits, said she and her family had water from well systems.
"All my parents’ friends called and said, 'Can we come over and take a bath?' Mother was very generous with it," she said.
The flood of 1943 displaced more than 250 Fort Smith residents, ushered in troops from what is now Fort Chaffee for assistance and prompted hundreds of people to fill sandbags, according to historical records. Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson in May 2019 activated the Arkansas National Guard, who were stationed in Fort Chaffee, for possible high water rescue missions. Residents and volunteers throughout town also filled sandbags for people in flood zones.
It might not have been all that different from the past, but McGill called the effort put forth in the 2019 floods "massive."
"What I’ve seen is amazing cooperation and collaboration — agencies listening to one another, and then coordinating the relief has been very good," he said.