The Mississippi River may be retreating, but the flood fight continues.

After cresting at just more than 57 feet Monday morning — the third highest flood at the Natchez gauge — the mighty river has started to drop back to normal levels.

The National Weather Service predicts the river will drop below flood stage by Easter, when local residents can breathe a collective sigh of relief.

Until then, local emergency management crews remain alert for threats to the levees that protect the area from the floodwaters.

Monday afternoon, local crews were busy loading sandbags onto trucks to help respond to a sand boil on the north side of Lake St. John.

Concordia Parish workers pitched in to help the Fifth Louisiana Levee District in the fight.

Allowing water to seep under the levee, sand boils threaten to undermine the earthen structure for this current flood and future floods. Left unaddressed, sand boils will continue to get bigger and bigger and weaken the structure.

Thankfully, routine inspections of the levee identify sand boils before they become a problem.

As the Mississippi River continues to drop, the threat to the levees will decrease.

Until then, we thank all who continue to help ensure the system of levees that protect Louisiana residents remains effective and strong. The efforts to work together is to be applauded.

After all, it only takes one sand boil and one future levee break to threaten the entire region.

 

Editor’s note: The editorial published in Thursday’s paper contained errors related to the sand boil on the north side of Lake St. John. The sand boil was located in Concordia Parish in the Fifth Louisiana Levee District. The errors have been corrected above.