River’s rising with more rain ahead

Antron Blaylock didn’t have to stray far from the seat of his pickup to cast his line Thursday morning, simply parking alongside the Sabine River’s floodline at the boat ramp near Hwy. 271, putting his hook in the flow and waiting for a bite.
For the second time in as many months, local precipitation (and drainage from elsewhere) has pushed the waterway’s level past 25-feet and into its ‘Action Level.’ Most recently, it crossed that line Friday afternoon, May 9, and rose past 26 feet Sunday morning.
That’s the ‘Minor Flooding’ level of the river, defined as “Minimal or no property damage, but possibly some public threat,” according to the National Water Prediction Service of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Local observations are collected at water.noaa.gov/gauges/gdwt2.
The greatest threat last week was to the fish nibbling at lines from Blaylock and other local anglers, but given recent rainfall, the Sabine’s level at Gladewater is projected to peak at 29.7 feet Thursday morning, May 15. There’s more in the forecast, of course.
At 29.0 feet, four feet shy of the ‘Moderate Flooding’ level at 33, the National Weather Service reminds locals to “Expect lowland flooding to continue with oilfield operations curtailed.”
The NWS’ Flood Warning “Remains in effect until further notice,” according to the agency’s Shreveport office.