PINE BLUFF, Ark. — Lake Saracen has consumed the park in the area that used to be around it.
Arkansas Game and Fish Nature Center employees have been going out on Lake Saracen every single day to see how this water has impacted their facilities.
“Been boatin’ over gates and bridges,” facility director Jason Hooks said.
Things they’ve worked hard on, like their native plant and animal habitat exhibits, are under eight feet of water.
“I’m sure we’ll have to replant a lot of those,” Hooks said.
They won’t know the extent of damages until water stops rising.
“We’ll know probably tomorrow when it crests. We’ll come back in and look at it. We do have water in some of our smaller buildings but not our main exhibit hall yet,” Hooks said.
Monday, they gave Pine Bluff city leaders a tour of the flooded facilities in Regional Park.
“They were pretty speechless,” Hooks said.
A lot of what they’re looking at can’t be seen; like the baseball field, parking lots, the golf course and trails.
“That is lumber for our boardwalks on our trail systems. We’ve been slowly trying to work and replace older lumber. We tied it off to a sign that’s now under water,” Hooks said.
So far, the Nature Center’s main building is dry, but the parking lot in front can’t be seen.
“Our parking lot that employees park in is under that light pole over there and then the public parking is behind us,” Hooks said.
Hooks said people have asked how they can help but right now there’s nothing that can be done.
“I know it floods and that went into the design of the building with it being up on stilts. We are in a flood plain, so it’s going to flood, but I’ve been director here for about a year and a half and I haven’t seen flooding to this extent,” Hooks said.
With trees beginning to topple over, this is just the start of what’s to come.
“We’ll be dealing with the effects of the flood for a long time,” Hooks said.
Arkansas Game and Fish will go back out on the lake several times for the next few days to make sure everything is dry and secure.