NATCHEZ — More than two weeks will pass before a projected 64-foot crest of the Mississippi River reaches the Miss-Lou, but sandbagging operations in Natchez and Adams County are already under way in a few at-risk areas.

Protective efforts on Silver Street, a low area near the Natchez-Adams County Port, the industrial park Entergy substation and the Natchez Wastewater Treatment Plant will hopefully ward off damaging floodwaters and allow operations to continue as usual.

Silver Street

Construction crews began Thursday building a 450-foot Hesco Bastion instant levee on Silver Street that will stretch from behind the Isle of Capri office to in front of the Under-the-Hill Saloon.

The instant levees are metal-framed containers lined with impermeable fabric and filled with sand.

Denton Biglane, whose family owns much of the land on Silver Street, said Thursday crews started early that morning building a protective wall system and would work until nightfall.

“We’ll work until we can’t see,” Biglane said.

Biglane said the construction got off to a slow start because some containers behind the Isle of Capri office left no room for heavy equipment. Sand was shoveled into those containers by hand, he said.

He said the job would likely be completed today.

When completed, the wall on Silver Street will hold 1,600 to 1,800 cubic yards of sand. The barriers should withstand a water level of 70 feet.

“When this is over with, we’ll have a lot of fun getting rid of (the sand),” Biglane said.

Port area

Adams County’s road crew began constructing a 100-foot dirt wall Thursday in a low-lying area near the port that runs over the railroad tracks.

Doug Wimberly, an engineer with the firm of Jordan, Kaiser & Sessions — the port’s engineering firm — said the port and railroad were shut down Thursday to build a wall to eliminate a low spot near the port where the railroad tracks were.

The dirt wall will run across the railroad track to the bluff with the intent of preventing the Mississippi River from flooding the port.

The wall will add four feet of height to the area, protecting the port from up to a 67-foot river crest, Wimberly said.

Since the low area is the last piece of track that comes to the port, it will cut off access to the port from most places.

Wimberly said the port has pumps that normally remove storm water from a five-acre, bowl-shaped area, and those pumps can be used if needed to reroute floodwaters as back up.

Wimberly said the wall will take only a few days to build.

He said he is confident the wall will work well.

“We wouldn’t be doing it if we didn’t think it was going to work,” Wimberly said.

Wastewater plant

Crews filled sandbags at the Natchez Wastewater Plant Thursday to be placed around five manholes at the site.

The sandbags will be stacked to create a square, 24-foot perimeter around the manholes to prevent drainage from backing up as the result of the rising river levels, Wastewater Plant Manager Michael Stewart said.

“The threat is coming through the water drains,” he said.

Stewart said the plant also has a plan for when the river gets too high to allow the clean, treated water to be pumped into the Mississippi River using a gravity-flow pipe.

The clean water stored in a 15-by-30-foot basin will instead bypass the river and be pumped into a manhole 30 feet away and flow toward St. Catherine’s Creek.

Stewart said the Mississippi Department of Environmental Quality approved the treatment plant’s flood plan.

Stewart said the city’s new sludge-drying greenhouse should be protected from potential flooding, but may be at risk if the river reaches 67 feet.

Sandbags will surround the nearby manhole over a potentially backed-up drain. If the manhole should leak or the sandbags fail, Stewart said the current batch of dried treated sludge could be ruined, but it would not cause major issues to the greenhouse.

If the control room of the greenhouse appears to be in danger of getting water, however, Stewart said that area will be sandbagged.

“We have prepared really well for (potential flooding),” Stewart said.

“I’m only worried in low areas about the storm drains or if a hard rain (happens) during that time,” he said.

If the storm drains overflow and breach the sandbags, Stewart said the damage it would cause to the plant would be repairable.

The plant is using an automatic sandbag-filling machine, which was loaned to the City of Natchez from Yoste Strategic Partners, LLC.

The Environmental Bagging System is a self-contained and transportable sandbagging machine used for disaster operations and force protection.

It can be deployed by two men in under 20 minutes and makes approximately 800 sandbags a minute, Stewart said.

Entergy substation

An Entergy substation on River Terminal Road, which supplies power to industries in the Industrial Park area, is preparing for high water and drain backup by sandbagging a few key areas, City Engineer David Gardner said.

The substation is already supplied with sand, and Entergy is waiting on 400 big sandbags from corporate headquarters, which hold as much sand as 3,200 small bags, Entergy Customer Service Manager Tim Runnels said.

Runnels said transformers and breakers, for instance, will be surrounded by a perimeter of sandbags.

The Industrial Park feeds power to the wastewater plant, Mississippi River Pulp Corporation, Delta Fuels, the port and other industrial businesses.

Wimberly said if the levee built by the county near the port should fail for some reason, the substation would receive six inches of water if the river crests at 64 feet.

He said the sandbagging measures are precautionary in the event other systems fail.

Runnels said the substation is important especially during a flood, because it gives power to the pumps at the port.

If the substation takes on water damage, Runnels said an alternate substation could give the pumps power.

Runnels said he is in communication with companies and residences that may have to turn off their power due to flooding.

“(Entergy) is meeting with customers all up and down (the river), trying to coordinate with them to see what’s best for them and safe (for) us,” Runnels said.