The Sabine River Authority late Thursday morning opened five gates at Toledo Bend Reservoir one foot to increase the water release by 5,000 cubic feet per second.
During the height of the March flood, SRA had all nine gates wide open at 22 feet with 208,000 cubic feet of water going out into the Sabine River.
The reservoir Thursday morning reached the level of 172.36 feet. Wednesday the authority announced gates would be opened at 172.35 feet instead of the usual 172.5 feet.
The Sabine River at Deweyville Thursday afternoon was at 24.6 feet, slightly above flood level of 24 feet. The National Weather Service predicts it will rise to 24.9 feet on Sunday and then begin to go down.
The river in Orange is not expected to go above flood level.
An inch of rain fell at the Orange County Airport during a noon thunderstorm Thursday, bringing a total of 8.5 inches of rain at the airport in four days.
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