Saline River Expected to Crest Friday Morning at Rye Bridge

RISON - While the Saline River is not expected to crest in southern Cleveland County until later this week, the rising flood waters were already impacting local activities as of Tuesday.According to the National Water Prediction Service of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), the Saline River at Rye is expected to crest at 29 feet at about 7 a.m. Friday morning, April 11.The monitoring station is located at the Hwy. 63 bridge near Rye just south of the Cleveland-Bradley County line. It is the closest one to Cleveland County.NOAA describes 29 feet as a “moderate” flood level for the Rye monitoring station. The record flood level at Rye is 31.4 feet.The Saline River seemed to have crested at the Hwy. 79 bridge between Rison and Kingsland sometime late Tuesday. The water level had crept up to near the paved shoulders by Tuesday afternoon, but the level seemed to have dropped by Wednesday morning.Erica Best, a dispatcher for the Cleveland County Sheriff's Department, posted on social media Tuesday afternoon that they had received several phone calls about the Hwy. 79 being closed due to the high water. She noted that the bridge had not been closed.However, the rising water levels along the Hwy. 79 bridge did prompt the Cleveland County School District to dismiss students from the Kingsland and New Edinburg area at 2:30 p.m. Tuesday over concerns about the rising water level, according to a post on the district's Facebook post.Also Tuesday afternoon, the Woodlawn School District posted a notice on its Facebook page that the baseball and softball games scheduled with Fordyce High School would be held as soon as the teams arrived at Woodlawn Tuesday afternoon due to flooding concerns.The flooding was a result of local heavy rains as well as the heavy rain in the upper Saline River watershed. According to a map released by the National Weather Service (NWS), Saline County, which makes up m...