MONROE, La. (KTVE/KARD) – While some communities along the Mississippi River could experience potential flood levels, some local experts are looking at the recent increase of water levels of the Ouachita River.
Executive director for the Tensas Basin Levee District Brandon Waggoner told KTVE the Ouachita River is currently below 34 1/2 feet, and it will continue to drop.
“The river did reach a crest of 38.85 feet, and that was on April 13th. But now, we are heading down.”
Water levels will continue to fall below the flooding stage, which is 40 feet. Waggoner says at one point, water levels of the Ouachita River were 1 1/2 feet away from reaching that stage.
He says the levee district in Monroe maintains a static and folding flow wall that is raised from time to time to prevent flooding.
“All of these projects are maintained throughout the year. We do periodically raise them just for inspection purposes. But everything that we have, as far as flood control, at this point is completely operational.”
In Wisconsin, a small number of people had to evacuate their homes as the river kept rising.
Waggoner says the Ouachita River should not experience any complications. He says they will continue to monitor the water levels.
“We were close to flood stage, but we were fairly far away from anything that was to cause any serious issues. We do monitor the river levels at the local interior water level 24/7 every day of the year. It is not something we are going to turn our back on just because we are trading down with the river at this point. We are very glad to see it trending down, but we won’t be turning our back on any time soon.”
Waggoner says those water levels will continue to drop within 7 to 10 days.