Storms Bring Damaging Winds, Floods

RISON - Residents and local governments are cleaning up after several rounds of severe weather brought damaging winds, baseball-size hail and flooding rains to Cleveland County last week.According to a rainfall map released by the National Weather Service (NWS), as much as 10 inches of rain had fallen in parts of Cleveland County over the previous 5 days as of 7 a.m. Sunday, April 6.Arkansas was among several states in the south and midwest that endured several rounds of severe weather that lasted from Wednesday, April 2, through Saturday, April 5.While parts of northeast Arkansas were devastated by tornadoes last Wednesday, Cleveland County was placed under a tornado warning at about 9 p.m. Wednesday night though there was never any confirmation that a tornado touched down in the county.There was a severe thunderstorm with high winds and large hail that hit Rison and northern Cleveland County last Thursday afternoon, damaging several buildings in the downtown area as well as blowing over trees and snapping power lines. Electricty was out in Rison and much of northern Cleveland County for several hours Wednesday afternoon and night after the storm.Heavy, persistent rains began to fall in the county around noon Saturday leading to flooding along county roads as well as some highways. Cleveland County Judge Jimmy Cummings said it could take longer than a week for the road department to get to all the wash-outs around the county.Here is a day-by-day look at how the weather impacted Cleveland County last week: Saturday, April 5 Heavy rains that began to fall around noon and persisted into evening and night led to several local roadways being flooded.Cummings, who lives in the Holmse Special community just south of the Cleveland-Jefferson County line along Hwy. 79, reported having 10.75 inches in his rain gauge at home.That matches an estimated five-day rainfall total that...