Flooding threatens wheat crop

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. — Empty grain elevators surrounded by a swollen White River await a harvest that may never come as floodwaters drown wheat already planted this spring.

Last year, Arkansas produced about 28.7 million bushels of wheat. Now, muddy waters have run through fields for days, taking with it expensive fertilizer treatments already applied to the soil.

Some of the wheat, green this time of year and looking like tall grass, has survived, wheat expert Jason Kelley, of the University of Arkansas Cooperative Extension Service, said Thursday. But grain under water for a week or more likely won’t make it.

“You could really tell the plant had been suffering,” Kelley said. “They were actually wilted and looked like they were running out of water, but they had no oxygen.”

Any real estimate on the damage will have to wait until the floodwaters drain, Kelley said, a process that may take days.

The flooding in Arkansas began with storms March 17 in the Midwest, and federal and state officials have been able to assess the damage only where the water has receded. Thirty-five counties — nearly half the state — have been declared federal disaster areas. One person was killed in the storms in Arkansas, and another remains missing.

Recent heavy rains also flooded parts of other states, including Ohio, Indiana, Illinois and Missouri. The weather has been linked to at least 17 deaths in the region.

The National Weather Service issued a flash-flood warning Thursday for the White River downstream from the town Des Arc, northeast of Little Rock, and forecasters said flooding at Clarendon in Monroe County could be the worst in 25 years.