Only one type of natural disaster comes with such a tested roadmap.

For weeks before the Mississippi River’s nasty crest got to Natchez, we were able to watch it come.

It passed Bird’s Point, Mo., Cairo, Ill., Memphis, Tenn., Arkansas City, Ark., Greenville and finally Vicksburg before it came to see us.

We knew how high above flood stage it was at each of the stops along the way. We knew whether U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ levees held or were blown out. We knew when property flooded.

The roadmap made the worry grueling, but it helped protect us all.

Now, as that bubble of water travels southward causing more havoc in Louisiana, our eyes are again turning north.

Cleanup has begun, and the sight is not pretty.

In Memphis the list of what the Mississippi left behind is, well, gross — a dead armadillo, dead fish, dead birds, a cowboy boot, half a shovel, bluebird eggs, piles of driftwood and water moccasins.

But the list doesn’t begin to do justice to perhaps the river’s worst side effect — the stench.

Water is just beginning to recede enough in Memphis for workers to don rubber boots and gloves and start cleanup. Such work here is still weeks away.

But, unfortunately, we simply have to check our roadmap to know its coming.

And it won’t be fun.

The Commercial Appeal newspaper in Memphis quoted Shelby County Office of Preparedness director Bob Nations about the work left to do. His remark hit the nail on the head.

“Recovery is not as romantic as response,” Nations said.

It was easy — mandatory really — for area officials, volunteers and residents to prepare for this disaster.

Few folks worried much about fatigue when they started packing up important items or filling sandbags.

Our community — just like those north and south of us — has been on an adrenaline crest that was much higher that the river’s real crest.

It’s waning now. I’m tired of writing about it. You are tired of reading about it. We are tired of living it.

But it won’t go away that easily.

The next month — maybe more — stands to be more difficult than the first.

The adrenaline won’t be back to help us past animal carcasses, silted fields and damaged infrastructure because we’ve read the roadmap; we know the immediate danger is gone.

With that fear went the national media folks who gave us a reason to get excited. Daily visits from state and national elected leaders went downriver, too. The national volunteers in town to keep our dogs and cats at the temporary shelter will leave soon.

Even the Mighty Mississippi — as we’ve come to know it in the last month — will soon leave us too. It will, thankfully, of course, return to its regular banks and its regular flow.

What will be left, besides the stench, sand, gunk and rotting carcasses?

Our community, of course.

We were a strong, united front before life changed, and we will be afterward.

Everyone has, rightly, praised the efforts of so many leaders and residents for weeks. But the real job is just beginning. The task ahead is more difficult than the task behind.

We’ll need each other more than ever, and because of that fact, I’m not worried and you shouldn’t be either.

Julie Cooper is the managing editor of The Natchez Democrat. She can be reached at 601-445-3551 or julie.cooper@natchezdemocrat.com.