It is not just the Arkansas River -- was watching Weather on Dish and there had been one area that had 24 inches of rain in 3 days hitting the Mississippi... when the Levees were built by the Army Corps of Engineers they were thinking about normal flooding instead of Catastrophic --- If the Levees were built 200 yards further back from the river on both sides there would never have been a break in any area -- they counted too much on the flood control lakes in North Mississippi --- that is my thought on it but I do not have a degree in anything but Common Sense and Hard Knocks