BENTON, Ark. — Flooding has been a top concern for people in Arkansas as tropical storm Beryl makes its way through the state, and one local business is taking action to prevent flooding.
At The Front Porch Market in Benton, the owners with some help from people in the community, have been digging a trench and getting ready to sandbag the back side of their building.
The owner said they've dealt with flooding in the past and with several inches of rain expected here, they don't want to risk it happening again. The back of the building has been a problem area for The Front Porch Market during heavy rain.
"We've already had a little touch of what could come...we've already lost a register before," Co-owner Justin Mitchell said.
Now, owners Justin Mitchell and Mary Admire have both been working quickly to prevent it from happening again as side effects of Tropical Storm Beryl move through the state.
"We're going to start probably sandbagging the rear part of the market. We're going to trench out a little french drain here quickly. We've only been in this market since December, so we didn't have time to even, and we've grown so fast, didn't even have time to get the French drain installed," Mitchell explained.
Mitchell and Admire took to social media to ask for help and recommendations.
"The community really kicked in online, through Facebook. We have a big following. They've helped us out a lot, getting us an excavator on the way to kind of trench out and make us a drain. So it's been really good, but yeah, tractor work and a lot of sandbagging, and we'll we should have it handled," he explained.
At the end of the day, they're trying to protect the expensive equipment inside.
"All this electronic stuff up here is vital to what we do, we get extremely busy, so even one register down would put us way behind, it would be terrible," he added.
Mitchell said he's thankful the community always steps up to help during times like these.
"Anytime we need anything, whether it be a heater in our old building, they chipped in. But I use the community as a tool, and they've been amazing," he said.
A Saline County spokesperson said some areas around the Saline River are known for flooding when there are several inches of rain.
He encourages people to pay attention to road closure signs if roads do flood.