VICKSBURG, Miss. (AP) — Warren County Sheriff Martin Pace said at least five neighborhoods have taken on water in the county and city of Vicksburg.

“We’re patrolling subdivisions by boat,” Pace said Friday.

Deputies are also living at Eagle Lake, a community north of Vicksburg that was evacuated and is now isolated.

And U.S. Highway 61, a major north-south route has been cut off by water “so there are thousands of people effected by that,” Pace said.

Gov. Haley Barbour, arriving in Vicksburg on Friday after a flyover the Delta, said the main levee is holding every here along the river. He said to the east of the levee workers can be seen shoring up as many areas as possible.

Barbour said it was time for people in areas of potential danger to get out.

“Move what you can, elevate things that can be elevated, tie down what can float, but most of all, evacuate to save your own life,” Barbour said in a stop at the Vicksburg Municipal Airport, where water from the river was climbing toward the runway.

“We’re asking people to get out before the crest, while they still can. This is the last weekend people can do that,” Barbour said.

Barbour said state and local agencies have been meeting daily about flood preparations and response.

“Just because things have gone well so far, doesn’t mean you can let your guard down. Everybody needs to pray for the best, prepare for the worst,” Barbour said. “We anticipate that once the river crests, it will stay high for several days. It will not start dropping fast. We expect a long, flat crest. People need to plan for that as we go forward.”

He said some people “won’t able to get back to their property in some areas for three, four or five weeks.”

Barbour said some National Guardsmen would be deployed no later than Sunday into areas of Warren, Sharkey, Humphreys, Yazoo, Issaquena and Washington counties to assist local and state agencies.

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers planned a Friday afternoon briefing on flood control efforts along the Mississippi River in Mississippi and Louisiana.

Flood or not, the Kings community in north Vicksburg is not about to abandon it neighborhood barbecues. Music blaring from a truck radio, two grills cooking, and game of dominoes, members of the community came together Thursday at a high spot in the neighborhood. All around, were flooded houses, some swamped nearly to the roof. An alligator ate someone’s dog not far from here, a police officer said.

Willis Swartz, 30, was cooking chicken, ribs, steaks, deer sausage and hamburgers. He now lives in another neighborhood, but has returned here over the years to the “Field of Dreams.” a community park.

“We ain’t going to lease. We used to this before the water came, and we still got out spirit. So we’re going to keep going, water or not,” he said. “Anybody that needs something to eat can come and get it.”

Lee Ester Bridges, 58, said the hot food and camaraderie was a boost to the area. Several feet of water inundated her home and her brother’s house nearby.

Looking around at the rising water, she said she doesn’t know what the future holds.

“I don’t know if I’m going to come back here or not,” she said. “You just have to keep on going.”

Janice and Ronnie Tyler, who own a printing shop with in downtown Vicksburg, started selling flood T-shirts this week. One has the slogan “I (heart) Vicksburg Sandbaggers,” with “Flood 2011” in the red heart. The other has a photo of the city’s former train depot partially submerged in river water. Surrounding the photo is the slogan, “Mississippi River Flood Survivor 2011 Vicksburg.” The photo was taken this week, Janice Tyler said.

The T-shirts were selling for $10, tank tops for $12.

Janice Tyler said she made the T-shirts because she saw a demand.

“I said, ‘Somebody’s going to do it. It might as well be me.”

Just down the street from Tyler Printing, tourists and locals stood and stared at the swollen Yazoo Diversion Canal, which is just off the Mississippi River. Many snapped photos of the former depot.