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CALION — A backhoe claw pressed against a pallet-sized piece of wood is all that’s stopping the Ouachita River from rushing into Calion.

The rudimentary floodgate sits at the base of a mill pond on the Calion levee and was built early Sunday morning by two men credited by Union County Judge Bobby Edmonds for “saving the City of Calion.”

Carter Dale King, a Union County contract employee hired to monitor the Calion levee and pump system, and Rick Evans, supervisor at the Calion Lumber Co. and husband of Calion Mayor Karen Evans, constructed the makeshift gate after King ...