WEST MEMPHIS, Ark. — West Memphis, Arkansas is left with severe flooding following the recent storms. Homeowner Hannah Holt said this isn’t the first time she’s experienced flooding as bad as this storm and it likely won’t be the last.
“Yes so, it’s definitely been an experience before. And it’s not even necessarily when we have heavy rainfall,” Holt said. “This has happened to my backyard several times just with a little bit of rainfall.”
Her entire backyard is submerged in at least six inches of standing water - and that water comes up to about a foot high in some areas.
“This is the result of a heavy rain – we did have flash flood warnings this time but like I said before, this happens all the time even with just a little bit of rain,” Holt said.
She said she and her neighbors are tired of waiting on the city of West Memphis to put in preventative measures to drain water from both property and roadways.
“A lot of them are very frustrated,” Holt said. "Some people have had to pay companies to come in with their own money and put drainage systems in because it’s not something that the city has provided for us.”
Her house is experiencing severe damage from the storms in the floors.
“We’ve replaced all of the subfloor and the joist underneath already that was from previous water damage from so much moisture staying underneath the house all of the time,” Holt said. “From days like this that the rain keeps watering the backyard and it gets under the house. So, it’s causing stuff to rot under there and it’s got my floor sagging already -- my newly redone floor that should not be having these issues. So that’s gonna have to be addressed all over again.”
She said her and her neighbors have tried to contact the city but haven’t heard back. Others in the area say they believe the city has given up on answering the phone after storms hit.
ABC24 reached out to the city of West Memphis and was told they’d get back with us on when we can speak with Mayor McClendon but have not responded since then.