On Monday, Judge Dale Freeman declared a disaster for Lawrence County after the flash flooding that occurred Sunday night and continued through Monday. According to the Judge, Lawrence County has multiple roads that were damaged due to the large amount of rain that fell in the recent storms.
The declaration will assist the county by qualifying for assistance funds to be directed to the county. Crews from the Lawrence County Road Department were out in full force Monday morning attempting to fix as many roads as possible. The declaration was sent to the Arkansas Department of Emergency Management early Monday, exact damage amounts in the county are yet to be determined due to some roads in our area still being water covered.
According to Judge Freeman, the county road graders were sent out to first get the roads passable for residents, then the second stage of road repairs will begin. Lawrence County has nearly 1500 miles of gravel roads, many of which were damaged in the storm. Judge Freeman stated that once the roads and bridges were cleared, the road department would begin to repair the damaged areas. Some roads were simply washed out in places while others sustained heavy damages to culverts and at least one bridge in the Ravenden area was heavily damaged.