For Fair Use Discussion and Educational Purposes

ClarionLedger.com
Written by
Jerry Mitchell
10:51 PM, May. 3, 2011


With the Mississippi River on the rise, streets in low-lying areas of Vicksburg are underwater. If worst-case scenarios prove true, flooding in the lower Mississippi Delta could put Rolling Fork and other towns underwater.


Nimrod said the worst-case scenario would be for the water to reach 107 feet above sea level. "That's at least six feet above a 100-year flood."

In the best-case scenario, many rural areas of the Mississippi would get flooding, he said. "In the worst-case scenario, we've got towns underwater."

On Tuesday, state Department of Transportation officials closed Mississippi 465 in Warren County and Issaquena County because of high flood waters, saying it will remain closed until further notice.

The Mississippi Levee Board has voted to close all roads along a 176-mile mainline levee beginning midnight Saturday, impacting residents' access to hundreds of homes and hunting camps, said Charles Tindall III, the board's attorney.

The state Department of Wildlife, Fisheries, and Parks has suspended all recreational boating activity on lakes along the Mississippi River affected by the flood.
If worst-case scenarios prove true, flooding in the lower Mississippi Delta could put Rolling Fork and other towns underwater.

A public meeting is set for 10 a.m. today at the National Guard Armory in Rolling Fork.

"We're not talking a 100-year flood," said Peter Nimrod, chief engineer for the Greenville-based Mississippi Levee Board. "It's way beyond a 100-year flood."

Flooding could also hit the towns of Valley Park, Onward, Anguilla, Cary and Mayersville.

On Tuesday, Gov. Haley Barbour requested President Barack Obama declare 11 Mississippi counties as disaster areas in anticipation of major flooding. Those counties are Adams, Bolivar, Claiborne, Coahoma, DeSoto, Issaquena, Jefferson, Tunica, Warren, Washington and Wilkinson.

All nine casinos in Tunica County have been closed indefinitely. Last year, the casinos paid $70 million in taxes to the state and $35 million to the county.

"It is our hope that the rising water will recede rapidly, however, if it gets as high as predicted, our situation becomes even more perilous," said Webster Franklin, CEO of the Tunica Convention and Visitors Bureau. "A crest of 48 feet has the real potential to cause structural damage to our casinos and further delay our area's recovery."

The National Weather Service predicts the Mississippi River also will reach record levels in Vicksburg and Natchez. The worst flooding is expected in the lower Mississippi Delta.

Flood waters are expected to reach 57.5 feet - more than a foot beyond the top of the Yazoo Backwater Levee.

The best-case scenario would be the water would only reach 95 feet above sea level, Nimrod said. "The water flows over the levee, and the levee holds."

Kelly Greenwood, chief engineer for the state's other levee board, the Yazoo-Mississippi Delta Levee Board, remains confident levees will hold in Coahoma, DeSoto and Tunica counties. Access already has been closed to the 98-mile mainline levee that stretches from Walls in DeSoto County to the Coahoma-Bolivar county line.

"Our levees are in top condition, and we are confident regarding their stability," he said.
Backwaters from the rising river already have reached some homes and other structures. It's on the way to others and may all but submerge those in the lowest areas of the impacted Delta counties. Emergency officials are hoping for the best, but are well aware they cannot suppress a river intent on rising and pushing backwaters into residential areas.

The Great Mississippi Flood of 1927 may be one of the state's most notorious weather events, but many times since, backwaters have claimed property and lives in the Delta.

State Rep. John Hines, D-Greenville, said he is particularly concerned about evacuation plans for the elderly and people with disabilities. Hines said he was not comfortable with the responses he received from emergency officials for evacuating vulnerable residents, if necessary.

"All special needs people need to be given a high degree of concern," he said.

Tindall said people have been given ample warning. "I don't think we'll have any of those situations," he said.

Rolling Fork Mayor James Denson said predictions are flooding will reach between 107 and 109 feet above sea level in his town.

He said the highest point in town, the courthouse, is 106 feet above sea level. Everything else is below that, he said.

He said city officials already have begun to store sand in multiple locations for sandbagging.

They plan to keep an eye on one low-lying neighborhood that includes Sixth and Seventh streets, he said. "We know from the 1973 flood that those areas were directly involved in the flooding."

The uncertainty of the future has "more or less got everybody in limbo," he said.

Whatever happens, he is certain citizens will keep fighting, he said. "We're hopeful, but we're right there in his (God's) hands."


Staff writer Molly Parker contributed to this report.

Wow Jennice, Gimel

we had just talked about RAIN of Mercy Drops and GOD SEND FLOOD!

There is also flooding here in Singapore!
http://sg.news.yahoo.com/blogs/singaporescene/northern-central-singapore-hit-flash-floods-102530695.html

Hope we are getting out of Here soON!