Thanks to some much needed sunshine in the region, Old Man River is slowly going down after reaching its crest this week.
The Mississippi River on the Greenville gauge crested at 54.6 feet on Monday, and had only dropped to 54.5 feet as of Tuesday afternoon. The river should be back down to flood stage (48 feet) by late June or early July.
Mississippi Levee Board Chief Engineer Peter Nimrod said the flooding in Greenville hasn’t caused any structural issues to the levee, which is good news.
“The levee is great, there is nothing going on,” he said.
While the waters along the Queen City are looking good, Nimrod said the real problem lies south along the Backwater Levee.
As of Tuesday afternoon, the Backwater was at 98.1 feet and the Yazoo Backwater Levee was at 107 feet.
“It is filling in at Eagle Lake about two feet a day and is flooding a lot of nice homes,” he said, noting Highway 1 between Fitler and Onward is starting to go under water.
“It’s a mad house down there, big time,” he said.
Farmers south of Washington County are in bad shape, with over 500,000 acres of land under water, which includes more than 200,000 acres of crop land.
The good news for folks down south, Nimrod said, is the levee in Vicksburg should be cresting soon before falling out and allowing the Steele Bayou Structure Gates to open.
“Maybe by the end of the week they can open the gates again and the backwater will finally stop going down, hopefully,” he said.
More good news, Nimrod said, is there are no signs of more flooding for the Delta anytime soon.
“There’s nothing really showing that there’s something else coming up behind it, but you never know. It’s still pretty high where if something develops, things can change pretty quickly, but for right now it looks pretty promising.”
