THE Corp Of Engineers has issued a warning To the City of Cotter and surrounding area of potential 40,000 to 60,000 cfs releases from Bull Shoals this week to dump expected heavy rainfall from Tropical Storm Christobal.
Christobal is scheduled to move into Arkansas tomorrow morning and be gone Tuesday am. The National Weather Service predicts widespread heavy rain of 2″ to 4″ across Arkansas, including Baxter and Marion Counties with locally higher amounts possible.
Corp officials in a letter to the City of Cotter released by Officials yesterday, said Corp modelling was predicting the need for releases of 40,000 to 60,000 cfs from Bull Shoals Dam, and from 30,000 cfs to 40,000 cfs from Norfork Dam.
60,000 cfs would be the largest release, combined spillway and generation flows, from Bull Shoals since construction, beating the 2011 release of 50,000 cfs.
The Corp statement released by Cotter City Hall said:
“The forecast for the tropical storm and heavy rain is still projected to hit Norfork and Bull Sholas watersheds this Monday. This may result in discharging of flood waters from Norfork and Bull Shoals Dams. Depending on how much rainfall actually occurs in the watersheds, we will (open) our tainter gates on Tuesday Morning.
Normally several openings of various heights occur as the engineers recalculate the inflow into the reservoirs every few hours.
Currently our models show releases as
Beaver: 10k – 20kcfs
Table Rock: 30k – 50kcfs
Bull Shoals: 40k – 60kcfs
Norfork: 30k – 40kcfs
These are considered large and potentially damaging releases.
Please advise your residents to take appropriate action to protect their property and person from the rising river levels.
Thank You
Mark Case
Operations Project Manager
Norfork & Bull Shoals Lakesâ€