WEST MEMPHIS, Ark. — Homes and apartment complexes across West Memphis experienced some water damage as a storm poured down on the area. Mayor Marco McClendon said he’s doing everything he can given the flat lands West Memphis sits on.
The city is working through a $40 million plan to improve how it handles weather in the future.
“We have got a $40 million maintenance program that’s going on right now within the city that will allow our bayous to hold more capacity for its water,” McClendon said. “We're actually putting new tubing in if you see at the top of our city to allow our bayous to be able to hold more water.”
The initiatives are already progressing, but if severe weather comes again before the project is finished, McClendon wants his constituents to know something.
“One thing that I definitely want to make clear, I’m not God,” McClendon said.
He wants people to understand that he can’t fix everything, but he knows there’s work to be done and he said he’s putting in the effort to get it done. McClendon said sometimes the best thing he can do is be there for the community.
The mayor gives kudos to Fire Chief Barry Ealy, who led rescue teams for four to five hours on Tuesday to help those trapped in flooded homes get to safety.
“We just pretty much pull out our action plan, we call the people that’s on it, get them involved, onboard right away,” Ealy said. “We reach out to the Red Cross yesterday, I had to coordinate with Red Cross. We have to temporarily get the people evacuated and give them a safe refuge.”
Those who were displaced from their homes are now being led by the Red Cross as utility teams work to get power back on in the apartments hit the hardest.
“We had one rescue with a person that was kind of bed ridden,” Ealy said. “We had firefighters [and] MPD actually go in and carry them out to the boats to get them out of the house. The riverbend got hit the worst. It was totally submerged under water I think from the front to the back part of the apartment complex.”
McClendon said if anyone in West Memphis needs to be rescued from flooded homes or buildings following severe weather, they can contact the police department.