South Arkansas State Park Closed Due to High Water

For the past month, the Ouachita River at Moro Bay State Park has been running nearly 20 feet over flood stage. Park Manager Paul Butler said, “It’s been bad news.” The good news is the river has crested and it’s starting to fall. But it’s dropping at a snails pace— only three tenths of an inch each day. “It gets kind of old after a while, just boating around everyday.” Butler says its busy season around Moro Bay—especially with deer season opening up this weekend. Usually all the cabins and campsites are booked so with the park being closed, it’s a big loss. “Park loses revenue from people not being able to come and spend money and enjoy themselves at the park but also you still have cost of keeping facility running.” The road you would usually take to come into Moro Bay State Park is covered in water and no ones been able to drive down it for about a month. Butler says it may be another eight days to two weeks before the water goes enough for the park to reopen. “How long until a normal level? Might take half the winter before it gets back to normal.” But it’s not all bad news. Since there are no campers in the park, the staff is getting to do some jobs they usually wouldn’t get done. Like cutting down trees that were blocking the view of one of the park cabins. “A project that normally would have cost a lot more cause you have to pay a tree company to get equipment on steep bank, we were able to do by boat.” And now butler and his staff are watching the water and crossing their fingers it falls quickly. “Ready to get busy… enough is enough.”