Miss. casino, schools close due to rising water

Published 5:31 pm Friday, May 6, 2011

“There has not been a mandatory evacuation for the county. Most people are evacuating on their own,” Hamlin said Friday. “There’s high water in some areas already.”

Farther north in Washington County, the Lake Ferguson neighborhood along the riverbank also had been evacuated, said Myrties Sutton, who works with emergency officials in the county. Sutton said inland Greenville currently wasn’t under a threat.

“If we have to evacuate we’ll let everyone know through media, radio and we’ll sound the siren,” Sutton said. “None of that is expected right now.”

The National Weather Service said Friday the mighty Mississippi will crest at 64 feet at Natchez on May 22. Currently, all areas along the water body are above flood stage. Flood warnings have been issued for Warren and Issaquena counties, said Brian Koeneke, a weather service forecaster. In the northwest, flood warnings were issued for Coahoma, Tallahatchie, Quitman, Yalobusha, Panola, Tate, Tunica and DeSoto counties, he said.

All the levees along the river are expected to hold up to the waters, said U.S. Army Corps of Engineers spokesman, Kavanaugh Breazeale said Friday.

“The levees are doing what they’re designed to do and things are working well,” Kavanaugh said. “We do have a backwater levee north of Vicksburg that is designed to have water come over that, which will happen if water gets to predicted levels. That will help to relieve pressure.”