The raging Arkansas River is receding in northeastern Oklahoma as the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers scales back releases from a hydroelectric dam near Tulsa.
Powerful storms have dropped more than 20 inches of rain on parts of the region over the past month and pushed the Keystone Lake reservoir to record levels. The reservoir drains a watershed of about 22,000 square miles in Oklahoma and Kansas.
Corps Lt. Col. Adam Weece said Thursday that releases into the swollen river have fallen from a high of 275,000 cubic feet per second Wednesday to 210,000 by Friday daybreak.
Weece says residents of flooded communities will see “a gradual and visible” decline in river levels over the next five days.