Lafayette Co. residents pounded with heavy rain, flooding

LAFAYETTE COUNTY, Ark. (KSLA) - Southwest Arkansas got pounded with heavy rain late Tuesday night into Wednesday morning (July 12).

“We couldn’t get off the pond. We had to stay at home until the water went down,” said Lisa Ray, who lives in Stamps.

Across Lafayette County, residents woke up to find high water and downed trees. For many, they will have to wait before getting their mail as a USPS truck was swept off the road. Freddie Solomon was driving the truck and had to be rescued from the rushing water.

“You would never think something would happen that fast and I had to climb out the window and get on top of the cab because the water was just that high at the blink of an eye,” Solomon said.

Solomon was not injured.

“We were met with a lot of water and flood damage,” said Eugene Bullock, deacon of Buchanan Missionary Baptist Church.

Several inches of water got inside the church. Leaders there say they haven’t yet decided their next steps to get the doors back open for services.

“What goes through my mind at this time is how we are going to recover? It’s going to be a long process, but we will recover,” Bullock said.

Bullock says they just celebrated the church’s 116-year anniversary this past Sunday.

“We are going to have another 116 years after this. The church is strong,” said Bullock.

Lafayette County emergency management director, Robert Carmichael, says the heavy rain started around 2 a.m. Wednesday morning and when it finished, an estimated 12″ of water had saturated the county.

“Luckily there was not a lot of wind, so we only had a few trees down here and there. Pretty much it has only been water. Most of it is starting to recede in most places,” Carmichael said.

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