Mississippi River Flooding

[The Stig]

Original story from Reuters (http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/05/07/us-flooding-idUSTRE74462I20110507)


By John Branston

MEMPHIS, Tennessee | Sat May 7, 2011 6:40pm EDT

(Reuters) - Memphis area residents were warned on Saturday that the Mississippi River was gradually starting to "wrap its arms" around the city and rise to record levels as flooding moves south.

"It's a pretty day here, and people get a false sense of security," said Steve Shular, public affairs officer for the Shelby County Office of Preparedness. "The mighty Mississippi is starting to wrap its arms around us here in Memphis."

Nearly 3,000 properties are expected to be threatened. Rising water flooded 25 mobile homes in north Memphis Saturday morning. There were 367 people in shelters in Shelby County Saturday.

"Our community is facing what could be a large-scale disaster," said Shelby County Mayor Mark H. Luttrell, Jr., in a statement.

Water has covered Riverside Drive and is creeping up Beale Street, although below the level of businesses and residences. Most of downtown Memphis is on a bluff, so landmarks like historic Sun Studio, where music legends Elvis Presley and Johnny Cash got their starts, were not seeing flooding. Tour guide Jake Fly said people north and south of the city are "really feeling it."

"We're all hoping this river is going to crest soon, man," said Fly. "Man, it's something to see."

The National Weather Service forecast that the river will crest Wednesday in Memphis at 48 feet, just under the 1937 record. No significant rain is forecast for the next few days in the area. The weather service expects record crests in Mississippi at Vicksburg on May 20 and Natchez on May 22.

No deaths or injuries have been reported in the Memphis flooding, but the spectacle has drawn sightseers -- an activity being discouraged by emergency officials.

"Most of the tourists weren't trying to visit the clubs on Beale Street, but they were trying to touch the water," said Joseph Braslow, 20, son of one of the owners of A. Schwab Dry Goods on Beale Street.

Further north in Missouri, the river was cresting Saturday afternoon at Caruthersville, said Ryan Husted, meteorologist for the National Weather Service in Memphis. New Madrid, Missouri and Tiptonville, Tenn. crested at 48.35 Saturday and levels are falling.

The U.S. Coast Guard closed a portion of the Ohio River Saturday. The Coast Guard closed the Mississippi at Caruthersville briefly Friday.

Shular said a major concern is flooding along the tributaries of the Mississippi. These smaller streams and rivers usually flow into the larger river, but are "hitting a brick wall" and backing up.

In Arkansas, a portion of Interstate 40, a major national road artery for trucking, remained closed on Saturday due to flood waters.

In the state of Mississippi, over 2,000 residents will have to evacuate as the river continues to rise, according to Jeff Rent, director for external affairs for the Mississippi Emergency Management Agency.

"It will be much higher" than 2,000, Rent said. "There just does not seem to be an end to these emergencies lately."

A snowy winter spawned near-record crests on the Upper Mississippi this year that reached southern Illinois at about the same time as heavy rain swelled the Ohio River.

The resulting flows have threatened to overwhelm the intricate flood levee system, prompting the U.S. government to open a Missouri floodway for the first time since 1937 to relieve pressure. U.S. officials are expected to activate three floodways this year for the first time in history.

The U.S. government blew a hole in the Birds Point levee last Monday, flooding Missouri farmland to save some Illinois and Kentucky towns.

The U.S. plans to open the Bonnet Carre Spillway 28 miles north of New Orleans on Monday to relieve pressure on the city by diverting some of the flow to Lake Pontchartrain. It also could open the Morganza Spillway farther north by Thursday.

This year's flooding is set to eclipse numerous crest records set mainly in 1927 and 1937. The Great Flood of 1927 swelled the Lower Mississippi to 80 miles wide in some parts, caused up to 1,000 deaths by some estimates and drove more than 600,000 people from their homes.

Since 1927, levees have been raised and constructed with different methods, dozens of reservoirs have been added across the basin and floodways have been added.

[The Stig]

Original story from Action 5 news (local TV station (http://www.wmctv.com/story/14589554/thousands-in-memphis-told-to-evacuate-as-flood-waters-close-in)



(WMC-TV) - Teams from Shelby County and the city of Memphis conducted a door-to-door operation Friday to tell thousands of residents it is time to evacuate.

Meanwhile, the parking lot of the Raleigh Springs mall was an oasis Friday for Shelby County residents being targeted by flood waters.

Elizabeth Benson checked in to see if her house off Thomas and Frayser Boulevard was in danger. The news wasn't good.

"I need to prepare for the possibility of being flooded out," she said.

Local authorities were uncertain whether they had legal authority to order evacuations, and hoped the fliers would persuade people to leave. Bob Nations, director of emergency management for Shelby County, which includes Memphis, said there was still time to get out. The river is not expected to crest until Wednesday.

"This does not mean that water is at your doorstep," Nations said of the door-to-door effort. "This means you are in a high-impact area."

About 950 households in Memphis and about 135 other homes in Shelby County received the notices, Shelby County Division Fire Chief Joseph Rike said. Emergency workers handed out bright yellow fliers in English and Spanish that read, "Evacuate!!! Your property is in danger right now."

Memphis Police knocked on Pamela Holliday's front door Friday morning.

"The police were telling us if the flood waters get any higher they will turn off electricity and we will have to move," she said.

But Holliday didn't need a flyer to tell her flood waters were inching dangerously close. A few doors down, Reverend George Turks didn't get a flyer. His church, St Paul AME was almost under water.

"To me it's too little late, you know? I think there should have been more warning," he said.

In a section of south Memphis outside the evacuation zone, Billy Burke stood in his backyard, where water from a creek has been rising for days. About 20 feet away, a fish jumped out of a pool of standing brown water.

"I'm going to stay as long as I can," Burke said. "But if the water goes up another 10 feet, I'm out of here."

As flood waters rise so do the number of evacuees who need a place to go. Back at the command post, wrist bands will track who checks into a shelter and when. The wristbands have a bar code which is entered into a data base. Then, a scanner can track where an evacuee is staying and reunite them with their families if they get separated.

No matter how efficient, the emergency response system can't keep the river from rising, but it can lower the risk of injuries and casualties, and keep families together before during and after the disaster.

[piranha2]

That is turning into some bad stuff.

[Stg1swret]

You would think that by now folks in this country and the government would get a clue. Every year they face a flooding problem, some years worse the others, but they all keep there heads buried in the sand. Flood control/management is pretty much non existent in this country. The Army Corp of Engineers, has created more disasters then they have fixed with their water way management. Containing water rather then figuring out how to disperse it has only created more problems. Massive building in and along flood plains , and terra forming areas with the attendant removal of water retaining elements of nature have added to the issue. When all is said and done, people will be compensated for their loss, and rebuild in the same place again only to be flooded out again in the next few years. It is the same as the folks who loose their houses along beaches in hurricane areas on the east coast.

Do I fell sorry for themes, but they need to get a clue. Living next to a river in a low lying area is just asking for trouble. The same goes for living next to a levee, or on a beach on the east coast. It isn't a question of if you are going to be faced with the loss of your home, but when.

[bacpacker]

Sgt I agree with you. Build your house on a river, low lying flood plain, in the hurricane band, And the worst of all, below sea level. What do vou think is going to happen at some point. May not be this year or next, but it will happen. People gotta have better plans than that.

[The Stig]

Original story from Reuters (http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/05/09/us-flooding-idUSTRE74462I20110509)


(Reuters) - The Mississippi River likely began to form a crest on Monday at a near-record level in Memphis, and downstream the U.S. government opened a spillway and prepared to open a second to relieve flooding pressure on low-lying New Orleans.

The massive Mississippi was expected to take about a full day to form a crest at Memphis at the second highest level on record, just inches shy of its 1937 mark, said John Sirmon, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Memphis.

"All indications are that it is cresting about right now," Sirmon said after 4 p.m. local time, adding that the river could go up or down an inch or two over the next 24 hours.

The river stage stood at just over 47.8 feet Monday afternoon, short of the record 48.7 feet, and was expected to stay above major flood stage for eight days, Sirmon said.

In the Memphis area, Tennessee officials have warned more than 3,000 properties that they could be damaged by flooding with the Mississippi. More than 1,300 area homes were receiving notices urging people to evacuate until the water recedes.

"It's going to be a nasty one, it's going to be an expensive one," said Bob Nations, director of the Shelby County Office of Preparedness.

The Mississippi River's rise has been gradual, sometimes under sunny skies, prompting officials to warn the public not to let down their guard. Downtown Memphis sits on a bluff well above the expected flood levels and rock legend Elvis Presley's Graceland mansion sits well back from the river.

"I've never seen anything like it. I was born and raised here and it's pretty crazy to look at it," said Ashlee Omar, a sales and marketing manager for a blues club in the historic Beale Street entertainment district.

Eastbound lanes of the critical artery Interstate 40 from Little Rock, Arkansas, to Memphis were reopened on Monday, two days ahead of plan, Arkansas transportation officials said. Westbound lanes remained closed.

Since the flood of 1927, major improvements have been made in flood control with the building of dams and levees, reservoirs and floodways that have held all along the river.

SNOWY WINTER, HEAVY RAIN

A snowy winter spawned near-record crests on the Upper Mississippi this year that reached southern Illinois at about the same time as heavy rain swelled the Ohio River.

U.S. officials expect to open three of the river's floodways for the first time on record to relieve flooding that has been breaking or challenging records set during historic floods in 1927 and 1937 on the Lower Mississippi.

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers began opening the Bonnet Carre spillway 28 miles north of New Orleans Monday morning to divert part of the river flow to Lake Pontchartrain. Opening the spillway has no impact on homes or businesses.

The Corps expects to have about half of the spillway's 350 bays open by later this week and it could be fully opened before the flooding ends, according to Victor Landry, the Corps' Bonnet Carre operations manager.

"I think it is very feasible when you see the amount of water coming down the river," Landry said in a telephone interview. "We haven't seen these sort of river stages or flows, from what I am hearing, since the Great Flood of '27."

The Lower Mississippi swelled to 80 miles wide in some parts during the 1927 flood, causing up to 1,000 deaths by some estimates and leaving 600,000 people displaced.

The spillway has been opened nine previous times, most recently in 2008, and peak Mississippi flows are not expected to reach key Louisiana points for more than two weeks.

The Corps also has asked permission to open the Morganza Spillway on Thursday to ease pressure on Baton Rouge and New Orleans, which would force evacuations of people and livestock as it diverts water through the Atchafalaya River Basin.

Farmers in the affected area said Monday they were resigned to potentially huge crop losses if the Morganza is opened.

Earlier in May, the U.S. government blasted open a Missouri floodway for the first time since 1937, inundating some Missouri farms to relieve pressure on Illinois and Kentucky towns.

Through Mississippi, residents were bracing for potential record crests at Vicksburg on May 19 and at Natchez on May 21 and authorities were warning that up to 5,000 Mississippi residents may be forced to evacuate.

[The Stig]

Original story from AP (http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_MISSISSIPPI_RIVER_FLOODING?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2011-05-09-07-58-29)


MEMPHIS, Tenn. (AP) -- The Mississippi River rose Monday to levels not seen in Memphis since the 1930s, swamping homes in low-lying neighborhoods and driving hundreds of people from their homes. But officials were confident the levees would protect the city's world-famous musical landmarks, including Graceland and Beale Street, and that no new areas would have any serious flooding.

As residents in the Home of the Blues waited for the river to crest as early as Monday night at a projected mark just inches short of the record set in 1937, officials downstream in Louisiana began evacuating prisoners from the state's toughest penitentiary and opened floodgates to relieve pressure on levees outside of New Orleans.

In Memphis, authorities have gone door-to-door to 1,300 homes over the past few days to warn people to clear out, but they were already starting to talk about a labor-intensive clean up, signaling the worst was likely over.

"Where the water is today, is where the water is going to be," Cory Williams, chief of geotechnical engineering for the Army Corps of Engineers in Memphis, told The Associated Press.

Exactly how many people heeded the warnings was not immediately clear, but more than 300 people were staying in shelters, and police stepped up patrols in evacuated areas to prevent looting.

Aurelio Flores, 36, his pregnant wife and their three children were among 175 people staying in a gymnasium at the Hope Presbyterian Church in Shelby County. His mobile home had about 4 feet of water when he last visited the trailer park on Wednesday.

"I imagine that my trailer, if it's not covered, it's close," said Flores, an unemployed construction worker. "If I think about it too much, and get angry about it, it will mean the end of me."

Sun Studio, where Elvis Presley made some of the recordings that helped him become king of rock `n' roll, was not in harm's way. Nor was Stax Records, which launched the careers of Otis Redding and the Staple Singers. Sun Studio still does some recording, while Stax is now a museum.

Graceland, Presley's former estate several miles south of downtown, was in no danger either.

"I want to say this: Graceland is safe. And we would charge hell with a water pistol to keep it that way and I'd be willing to lead the charge," said Bob Nations Jr., director of the Shelby County Emergency Management Agency.

Talking about the river levels, he later added: "They're going to recede slowly, it's going to be rather putrid, it's going to be expensive to clean up, it's going to be labor-intensive."

The main Memphis airport was not threatened, nor was FedEx, which has a sorting hub at the airport that handles up to 2 million packages per day.

An NBA playoff game Monday night featuring the Memphis Grizzlies at the FedEx Forum downtown was not affected, and a barbecue contest this weekend was moved to higher ground.

"The country thinks were in lifeboats and we are underwater. For visitors, its business as usual," said Kevin Kane, president and chief executive of the Memphis Convention and Visitors Bureau.

Sandbags were put up in front of the 32-story tall Pyramid Arena, which was once used for college and pro basketball but is now being turned into a fishing and sporting goods store.

Forecasters said it appeared that the river was starting to level out and could crest as soon as Monday night at or near 48 feet, just shy of the all-time high of 48.7 feet. Forecasters had previously predicted the crest would come as late as Wednesday.

The river was moving twice as much water downstream as it normally does, and the Army Corps of Engineers said homes in most danger of flooding are in places not protected by levees or floodwalls, including areas near Nonconnah Creek and the Wolf and Loosahatchie rivers. About 150 Corps workers were walking along levees and monitoring the performance of pumping stations.

Levees in the Memphis area are 58 feet high on average, and the floodwalls downtown are 54 feet.

"We still have significant room before we even consider overtopping," Elizabeth Burks, deputy levee commander for the Memphis sector of the Corps.

At Beale Street, the thoroughfare known for blues music, people gawked and snapped photos as water pooled at the end of the street. Beale Street's world-famous nightspots are on higher ground.

At Sun Studio, where Johnny Cash, Jerry Lee Lewis and a multitude of others also recorded, tourists from around the world continued to stream off buses and pose beneath the giant guitar hanging outside.

"We didn't really know what to expect," said Andy Reilly, a 32-year-old musician from Dublin, Ireland, who was in town to perform. "We're delighted it's not as bad as we thought it was going to be."

Because of heavy rain over the past few weeks and snowmelt along the upper reaches of the Mississippi, the river has broken high-water records upstream and inundated low-lying towns and farmland. The water on the Mississippi is so high that the rivers and creeks that feed into it are backed up, and that has accounted for some of the worst of the flooding so far.

Because of the levees and other defenses built since the cataclysmic Great Flood of 1927 that killed hundreds of people, engineers say it is unlikely any major metropolitan areas will be inundated as the high water pushes downstream over the next week or so. Nonetheless, they are cautious because of the risk of levee failures, as shown during Hurricane Katrina in 2005.

In Louisiana, the Corps partially opened a spillway that diverts the Mississippi into a lake to ease pressure on the levees in greater New Orleans. As workers used cranes to remove some of the Bonnet Carre Spillway's wooden barriers, hundreds of people watched from the riverbank.

The spillway, which the Corps built about 30 miles upriver from New Orleans in response to the flood of 1927, was last opened in 2008. Monday marked the 10th time it has been opened since the structure was completed in 1931.

Rufus Harris Jr., 87, said his family moved to New Orleans in 1927 only months after the disaster. He was too young to remember those days, but the stories he heard gave him respect for the river.

"People have a right to be concerned in this area because there's always a possibility of a levee having a defective spot," Harris said as he watched water rush out.

The Corps has also asked for permission to open a spillway north of Baton Rouge for the first time since 1973. Officials warned residents that even if it is opened, they can expect water 5 to 25 feet deep over parts of seven parishes. Some of Louisiana's most valuable farmland is expected to be inundated.

At the Louisiana State Penitentiary in Angola, home of the state's death row, officials started moving prisoners with medical problems to another prison as backwaters began to rise. The prisoners were moved in buses and vans under police escort.

The prison holds more 5,000 inmates and is bordered on three sides by the Mississippi. The prison has not flooded since 1927, though prisoners have been evacuated from time to time when high water threatened, most recently in 1997.

[The Stig]

Original story from CNN (http://www.cnn.com/2011/US/05/09/midwest.flooding/?hpt=Sbin)


New Orleans (CNN) -- Waging war against historic flooding in eight Midwestern and Southern states, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers opened a spillway north of New Orleans on Monday in an effort to calm the rising Mississippi River.

A crowd gathered near the entrance to the Bonnet Carre spillway to watch workers use cranes to slide open the gates to the flood control system. The spillway, like another that could be opened next week, is designed to divert floodwater away from New Orleans and slow the raging river to protect the low-lying city.

Bonnet Carre is part of a system built after the devastating Mississippi River flood of 1927. While the river's highest levels may still be days away, a decision to open the second flood control structure -- the Morganza Spillway -- may not be, Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal said.

People with property that would flood if the spillway is opened should not dally, Jindal warned: "My advice to our people is not to wait, to get prepared now."

The Bonnet Carre spillway diverts water from the Mississippi to the Gulf of Mexico by way of Lake Pontchartrain. But opening the Morganza Spillway would flood populated areas and could put Morgan City, Louisiana, and other communities at risk.

Col. Ed Fleming, the Corps of Engineers' district commander in New Orleans, said he has requested the authority to open the Morganza Spillway. Jindal said the Louisiana National Guard had asked for at least three days, but preferably five days, to evacuate those areas before the Corps opens the gates.

Upstream in Memphis, Tennessee, residents and authorities had prepared all they could Monday as they waited for the Mississippi to crest at a near-record 14 feet above flood stage Tuesday morning.

"It's sort of torturous," Memphis Mayor A.C. Wharton Jr. said. "We've been waiting so long. It's hard keeping people's attention. It's warning fatigue, if you will. But we're ready for it."

The river level stood at 47.8 feet Monday evening and is expected to crest at 48 feet, said Ryan Husted, a forecaster for the National Weather Service in Memphis. President Barack Obama signed a disaster declaration for the state of Tennessee Monday, which will help direct federal aid toward recovery efforts in areas hit by severe storms, flooding and tornadoes since early April.

The Mississippi is the highest it's been at Memphis since 1937, when it crested at 48.7 feet -- 14.7 feet above flood stage. That flood killed 500 people and inundated 20 million acres of land, said Col. Vernie Reichling, the Corps' Memphis District commander.

The river covered the lowest parts of the city's historic Beale Street and had forced about 400 people from their homes Monday, Wharton said. Another 1,300 remained in low-lying areas, he said.

Corps officials said levees protecting the area appeared to be holding up well, with only minor amounts of water seeping in from beneath or lapping over from above. But local officials were taking no chances.

"It's a very powerful river. It looks like it's running very slowly, but it has a very strong current," said Bob Nations, director of preparedness in Shelby County, Tennessee, which includes Memphis. "We still don't know (exactly what) the river might do."

Nicholas Pegues, an East Memphis resident who lives near the Wolf River, said he's seen extensive flooding and homes left uninhabitable by the water as he's traveled through the region.

"It's affecting daily life tremendously," said Pegues, a Shelby County elections' division employee who submitted photos of the flooding to CNN iReport. "It is pretty severe downtown. ... I know a lot of ... people have lost their homes."

Wharton said the flooding had not yet caused major disruptions in the city, and he did not expect it to, even though National Weather Service meteorologist Bill Borghoff said it is possible the river won't fall below flood stage at Memphis until June.

That's the problem in Missouri and southern Illinois, where flooding continues even though the Mississippi and Ohio river crests have moved south.

In Murphysboro, Illinois, CNN iReporter Robert Icenogle said a swollen creek is inundating a church and bandshell while threatening to wash out telephone poles.

"We cannot get to the park, which is underwater, or to other towns," he said. "Most of the roads are closed, plus the water sewage plant is getting sandbagged." If a nearby sewer plant is forced to shut down, "We won't have tap water to bathe in or drink," he added.

Last week, the Corps intentionally breached a levee in Missouri as part of its effort to reduce the pressure on other levees, flooding 130,000 acres of agricultural land over the objection of state officials and some farmers.

"I'm very sad. I look at that and I don't have a home," Marilynn Nally said, pointing to her flooded family farm. "I feel like we're having to suffer for somebody else."

As the floodwaters worked their way south, the operator of a nuclear power plant in Port Gibson, Mississippi, expressed concerns that rising water could cut off an access road to the facility. However, there was no plan to shut down the Grand Gulf Nuclear Power Station and no immediate cause for concern, a spokesman for the Nuclear Regulatory Agency said Monday.

Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour told CNN's John King the greatest risk will likely be from flooding around the powerful river's tributaries, rather the Mississippi itself.
West Memphis awaits river to crest

"Pray for the best, but prepare for the worst," he said.

In Louisiana, where the river's crest is not expected to begin arriving until next week, Jindal added bears to the list of things residents need to think about. He said flooding could force some of the state's ursine residents from their homes and into populated areas.

So far, 21 parishes have issued emergency declarations ahead of expected flooding, Jindal said. He said 400 National Guard troops would be active by the end of the day Monday helping prepare for the flood.

Even with a forecast for record or near-record crests into next week and weeks of high water to follow, Corps officials say they expect nothing like the widespread and devastating flooding that occurred along the southernmost stretch of the Mississippi River in 1927.

That flood began near Memphis in the fall of 1926 and did not end until the following August, according to the National Weather Service. It devastated the levee system, and flooded 165 million acres of land, sweeping 600,000 people from their homes. It came at a cost of 246 lives and the equivalent of nearly $624 million in 2011 dollars.

As a result of that flood, the report says, Congress passed the Flood Control Act of 1928, which led to a massive public works programs to build a system of levees and other structures designed to hold back the river more effectively.

The latest flooding in the Mississippi and Ohio river valleys is largely the byproduct of torrential rains throughout the region. Over one two-week stretch, there was about 600% more precipitation than usual, Reichling said.

The weather now appears to be working in the flood fighters' favor. Only minimal rain is expected over the coming days, with daytime temperatures forecast to be in the upper 80s and 90s through Thursday, at which point the water levels should begin to creep back down.

But the Corps isn't going to back down anytime soon in watching over its powerful and sometimes unruly charge.

"It's a historic time we're in all along the Mississippi River," Fleming said.

[RedJohn]

Just the point of prepping. When that water shows, you need to hit the road fast.

[The Stig]

Original Story from CBSnews.com
(http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2011/05/11/national/main20061955.shtml?tag=cbsContent;cbsCarousel)

Miss. town could be wiped off map by flood
Tiny Tunica Cutoff, Miss., loses all 300 homes to floods; Concerned residents ask if they'll be allowed back

On the bloated Mississippi River, the unincorporated town of Tunica Cutoff, Miss., sits an hour's drive south of Memphis. There was a sense of relief after the river crested in the music city Monday, but it next took aim at the fertile Mississippi Delta -- leaving Tunica Cutoff residents wondering if they'll have a community to return to when the water recedes.

CBS News correspondent Mark Strassmann reports that there are about 300 homes in Tunica Cutoff, and they have all been flooded.

Other swamped communities may rebuild, but Tunica Cutoff may not. New housing codes mandate raising new homes above the 100-year flood plain. Most victims in Tunica had no flood insurance, and couldn't afford raising their homes. So here's their worry: Tunica Cutoff could be gone for good, flooded into history.

Tunica County, which contains the unincorporated Tunica Cutoff community, has little more than 10,000 residents, and a median family income of around $30,000, about half the national average, according to Census estimates. It is also about 70 percent black, whereas the national average is around 12 percent.

Tunica Cutoff resident Jimmy Mitchell, 46, and his wife and two children have been living in a loaned camper for more than week at a civic arena in Tunica, the Associated Press reports.

"There's no sewage hookup. You go in a barn to take a shower," Mitchell told the AP. "We have no time frame on how long we can stay."

As Mitchell and friends sat outside chatting in the breeze, children rode bikes nearby.

"Cutoff is a community where everybody lives from paycheck to paycheck. It's also a community where everybody sticks together," Mitchell said.

On Tuesday evening, nearly 200 Tunica Cutoff residents filled a civic center in Tunica city, demanding answers from officials on whether or not they would ever be allowed home, the Memphis Commercial Appeal reports.

Pepper Bradford, the Tunica County planner and flood plan administrator, told residents that those "whose homes are determined to be substantially damaged will have to comply with current elevated building codes if or when they are rebuilt, but residents will be allowed to return if they comply," the Appeal reports.

Bradford said many Tunica Cutoff homes were built before current flood maps and elevation codes were made standard. For a largely poor area, the cost of rebuilding to higher, tougher standard will be daunting. Meanwhile, residents must wait for the water to recede before even beginning the planning process.


SHTF events come in all sorts of packages.

[bacpacker]

That would be terrible not knowing if you would even be allowed to go back home or could rebuild if you can go back.

[Stg1swret]

They can go back and rebuild , just have to raise the house above the 100 year flood mark. Expensive to say the least, and most would be paying out of pocket since they didn't have flood insurance. This does however show the futility of building in a flood plain. At some point in time , despite your best efforts, you are going to lose your home.

[Stg1swret]

The Morganza fllod gates are opening to hopefully spare New Orleans from flooding. This will drown approximately 3,000,000 acres of land.

[The Stig]

Original story from the UK daily Mail (http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1388660/Mississippi-River-flooding-Residents-build-homemade-dams-saves-houses.html)




Islands in the stream: The extraordinary homemade dams holding back the Mississippi as desperate residents try to save their homes

By Daily Mail Reporter


We've all undertaken home improvements but these residents in flood-stricken Mississippi have had to embark on major construction projects just to protect their houses and livelihoods.

These homes in Vicksburg are all situated along the Yazoo River, a tributary of the overflowing Mississippi River, and their owners have surrounded themselves with tons of earth and sand.

With questions over whether the main levees that protect the area from floods would hold, these farmers took no chances and have so far saved their homes and crops from destruction.

Read more: Mississippi River flooding: Residents build homemade dams to saves houses | Mail Online (http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1388660/Mississippi-River-flooding-Residents-build-homemade-dams-saves-houses.html#ixzz1N2slrvuf)


I would encourage you to check out the pictures at the original news story. They are quite amazing.

Here's just one of them

http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2011/05/19/article-1388660-0C24806B00000578-130_964x433.jpg

If you are in a flood prone area, maybe an idea?

[The Stig]

An agonizing wait in La. for creeping floodwaters




BUTTE LAROSE, La. – Louisiana residents in the path of diverted floodwaters from the bloated Mississippi River kept up an agonizing vigil as hundreds of homes outside levees are threatened by the slow-moving surge that has swamped houses as high as the rooftops in Mississippi.

Floodwaters intentionally redirected by the Army Corps of Engineers into Louisiana's Atchafalaya Basin still haven't reached a number of small towns along that route. Meanwhile, Vicksburg and other cities upriver in Mississippi reported early signs that water levels were just beginning to slowly ebb as the floodwater bulge heads south to the Gulf of Mexico.

The corps partially opened the Mississippi River's Morganza floodway on May 14 to spare densely populated Baton Rouge and New Orleans from catastrophic flooding, but the water it was diverting from the river into the Atchafalaya Basin still hasn't crested in Butte LaRose and other small communities in south Louisiana.

In St. Martin's Parish, La., a mandatory evacuation initially set for Saturday has been pushed back at least two days after officials said the river would crest there May 27 at a lower level than previously thought.

The delayed evacuation in the parish is both a source of optimism and frustration for residents who have heard the same grim forecast for days on end. Once the surge of water comes, residents may not be able to return for weeks. They'll have to wait until Monday while officials decide whether to reinstate the evacuation order.

"It's probably a blessing for some because maybe some people who didn't have time to do additional sandbagging will now have more time," said Maj. Ginny Higgins, a spokeswoman for the St. Martin's Parish sheriff's office.

Kip and Gwen Bacquet trundled their furniture and other belongings to the second floor of their home, 9 feet off the ground. They are bracing for up to 5 feet of water in their neighborhood. Gwen Bacquet, 54, said the canal in their backyard has been rising about 4 inches per day. Their pier already was underwater.

The couple moved here last summer for a change of pace from their native Lafayette, a city of about 120,000 some 60 miles west of Baton Rouge.

Before leaving town, they planned for their last act: shutting off the electricity.

"Would the last people to leave Butte LaRose please turn out the lights?" Kip Bacquet quipped.

Farther up the Atchafalaya River, St. Landry Parish imposed a mandatory evacuation several days ago for numerous areas outside the ring levees protecting Krotz Springs and Melville. Hundreds of homes in all the evacuated areas are believed to be at risk of flooding.

The wait has been difficult for Michelle McInnis, 37, who spent days packing up to leave with her boyfriend, Todd Broussard. She called the National Weather Service every morning and used its measurements to chart the slowly rising water's progress on a calendar.

"This right now is mentally tormenting, this slow rising," she said.

It was a different story in Vicksburg as Mississippi residents wanted to know Saturday when the water there would finally recede.

Chris Lynn fired up his small aluminum boat and traveled about a mile to check out his father's house. The home sits atop a 15-foot dirt mound on the Mississippi River's banks, much like an island in the murky water.

"It looks like the water has come down about 2 inches," Lynn said, grabbing his cell phone to call his 73-year-old father with the news. "That's good. The floor is starting to dry out."

Sections of Vicksburg that have been flooded for weeks remained swamped Saturday, with water up to the rooftops on some homes.

Yet even though the Mississippi River was slowly falling, it is still so high that water is backing up into its tributaries, especially the Yazoo River.

Marty Pope, a senior service hydrologist with the National Weather Service in Jackson, said Saturday that the Yazoo River is not expected to crest until Monday at Yazoo City and two days later at Belzoni.

Pope said that means floodwaters will recede in some areas but continue to rise in others.

"I'll be glad to see that water start surging the other way," Pope said.

Meanwhile, Mississippi Sens. Thad Cochran and Roger Wicker applauded the corps on Saturday after a flying tour of flooded areas along the Mississippi River. The two Republicans spoke with reporters on a Vicksburg bluff overlooking the swollen river and said the most important thing was that the levees and the entire flood control system had worked as designed — despite some lesser problems.

Wicker said the flooding has dumped sediment that will have to be dredged from ports and harbors along the river. He said there may be a need to seek a federal budget supplement from Congress to fund those projects. Cochran, the ranking Republican on the Senate Appropriations Committee, also said the flooding is one of the biggest disasters in recent memory — stretching in some areas as far as he could see.

"It's going to a long time before we fully recover," Cochran said, noting it could take weeks for some areas to dry out once the water recedes. But he promised, "We can overcome this disaster."

The river was at 56.7 feet at Vicksburg on Saturday, down from the crest of 57.1 feet. It's still above the 1927 record of 56.2 feet.

The surging water has wiped out crops and damaged low-lying farmland along both banks of the Mississippi and its tributaries.

In Louisiana, Marty Frey harvested 600 acres of wheat from the Morganza Spillway before the massive gates were opened to divert water. But his rice had just been planted and now those fields are deep under water as thousands of acres of fields were swamped.

Back in Butte LaRose, Tommy Girouard, 57, and his brother, Keith, 53, were hunkering down to ride out the flood on Tommy's 60-foot house boat. Girouard said he is staying to protect his $150,000 investment. They stock up on 400 gallons of gas and food to last two months.

"It's safe on here," he said. "It shouldn't be a problem. Just tightening and loosening ropes, we should be fine."

Sheriff's deputies and National Guard troops knocked on his door Thursday, warning him about the evacuation that has since been temporarily lifted and telling him to sign a form that says he understands the risks of staying.

"Didn't read it. Wasn't interested," Girouard said. "I can't just walk away from this."

___

Associated Press writer Holbrook Mohr in Vicksburg, Miss., contributed to this report.


Original story at Yahoo news (http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20110522/ap_on_re_us/us_mississippi_river_flooding)

[The Stig]

Original story from Reuters (http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/05/21/us-flooding-idUSTRE74462I20110521)


Vicksburg officials urge caution, plan for cleanup
Photo
Sat, May 21 2011

By Meryl Dakin

VICKSBURG, Miss (Reuters) - With weeks to go before the flood waters of the crested Mississippi River fully recede, officials in Vicksburg, Mississippi, are advising caution and preparing for an aggressive cleanup.

"We are urging everyone to be patient," Mayor Paul Winfield told Reuters on Saturday. "They need to stay away from their homes and their properties until they're given clearance."

More than 2,000 residents and businesses evacuated Vicksburg and thousands of acres (hectares) of corn and cotton fields were flooded after weeks of heavy rain and runoff from an unusually snowy winter caused the river to rise to historic levels.

The river remains high above flood stage at Vicksburg and was expected to crest downstream at Natchez on Saturday at 61.7 feet, more than three feet (1 meter) above the record crest in 1937.

About three to six inches of rain over the next five days was forecast in the Ohio River Valley and the extra saturation could delay the Mississippi River's return to lower levels, said National Weather Service meteorologist Brittney Whitehead.

"It doesn't look like this rain is going to cause any more flooding," she said. "It may just slow down the decrease in the river levels that we've been seeing."

For residents in Vicksburg, the lingering water has put the routines of daily life on hold.

"This is a catastrophe happening at the pace of a snail," said school superintendent Elizabeth Duran Swinford.

Major roads are closed. Businesses are cut off by flood waters, leaving employees unable to get to work.

The city's animal shelter is at near capacity with dogs, cats, horses, chickens and goats until their owners find stable housing of their own.

Students and teachers at the city's smallest elementary school have for the last two weeks shared space with another elementary and intermediate school.

Swinford moved them as a precaution because their own school lies in a low area with a creek running behind it. She also took a step that initially drew criticism, opting to build a $65,000, six-foot-high levee around the school.

On Friday, she climbed the levee in black stilettos to point out the flooded playground, where only the tops of swing-sets and play forts were visible. The school building remained dry.

"It could have gone either way, but I'm going to err on the side of safety. I don't have time to wait on FEMA (the Federal Emergency Management Administration) when I have to open my schools back up" in early August, she said.

On the outskirts of the city, business has plummeted for Pig Willies bar owner John Harper since area roads closed.

The bar, frequented by many of the nearby farmers, usually boasts 40 to 50 customers on weeknights. One night last week, Harper served a single patron.

He estimated it would be three weeks before business picked up again.

"There's nothing we can do 'til then except sit here and lose money," he said.

(Writing by Colleen Jenkins; Editing by Jerry Norton)