Muskogee Arkansas River Flood: Areas to Watch

5/24/19 (Friday AM) UPDATE: click here to see the newest map and information on alternate routes between Muskogee and Fort Gibson.

{Updates can be viewed toward the bottom. Combined Muskogee/Fort Gibson/Braggs map at this link, or at the bottom of the post}

With all of the rain eastern and northern Oklahoma has received in the past week, the Muskogee area is bracing for major flood stage on the Arkansas River due to inflow from precipitation and water release from area lakes.

The Arkansas River at Muskogee is forecast to crest at 38' (10' above flood stage) on Wednesday, up from 27' yesterday. This would likely place the flood among the top five highest crests recorded at this location.

The record flood reading was 48.2' on May 21st, 1943 (before Ft. Gibson Dam was completed), and the second-highest on record was 39.6' on October 6th, 1986.

Areas below an elevation of 510' are likely to be flooded, if the crests as forecast. The map below gives a rough idea of the areas that are below 510'. Dark blue is the normal water levels, light blue covers the area subject to river flooding. Evacuations are currently underway in some of these areas.

Click here to view the Muskogee/west Fort Gibson map larger.

I hope to get more on the Fort Gibson side done as well, but the USGS maps for that area I can find all use contours of 20' instead of 10' as on the Muskogee side of the river (I assume it's because the Fort Gibson side has more topographical variance). Map has been added in below updates

Again, click here to view the Muskogee/west Fort Gibson map larger.

UPDATE 1: here is more of the Fort Gibson and Braggs vicinity. This one is less precise than the Muskogee one as it is based off a different map, but if you zoom in you can identify the 500' mark (this USGS map has 20' contour lines instead of 10').

Click here to view the south Fort Gibson/Braggs map in full size.

Again, click here to view the south Fort Gibson/Braggs map larger.

UPDATE 2: I've combined both maps into one image (view in full size at this link):

Again, view the combined map in full size here.