The levee in Greenville, MS--or "Flood Life"

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I seem to be the only WP'er in my area, so I thought maybe I'd take a stab at some crack news reporting, especially given the situation here.

What I don't get is everyone is going around saying "Don't panic! Don't panic! The levee will hold!" But the DA's office and the courthouse are being sandbagged. Um...ok...so what do they know that they aren't telling us?

Anyway... It's just crazy. The latest level is 63.68, so that leaves roughly 1.5 feet to go before reaching the crest. Now, yes, that's BAD, because that leaves something like 5 feet from the top of the levee. But don't worry, it'll hold!! !

Yeah, but the thing is, once the crest of the river flood passes us, it's going to take weeks before the water does go back down below flood stage, and in the meantime the levees still have to support all that weight.

I was driving down Broadway this afternoon after dropping my wife off at work when I saw a neighborhood under water.



A sand boil, apparently. Now, I'm sure everyone is doing everything they can to keep the levee holding up. It's just when they keep saying "Don't panic! Don't panic!" and then in the same breath start talking "evacuation plan," well, it doesn't bode well for how I view their credibility.

And then THIS happens.

OK. So what else is going to happen? Flooding in Tunica. Flooding in Vicksburg. The whole Yazoo backwater area is about to be closed off if it isn't already. But WE are ok...

*sigh*

Anyway, will give updates as things unravel. We're just a LITTLE nervous around here!

"Don't panic" and "evacuation" go together well. It prevents a hurricane Katrina type zombie apocalypse. If it's not too late, get some food, water, and emergency supplies, keep at least 3/4 tank of gas, and if you are eligible and they are still available, get a gun that requires very little learning curve to use like a .38 revolver or a 20 gauge double barrel shotgun.

Oh, and good luck!

When the power goes so does the water. Bottle water, cash in small bills, the registers die, extra gas, and plan your trip to high ground.

The river has been wanting to change course for a while. Levees make it higher, so the bottom silts up, then it is shallow at low water.

The most likely new course would be the Morganza spillway, down the Atchafayla spillway, a more direct way to the gulf, which would leave New Orleans to Baton Rouge too shallow for shipping.

The fear is, once it is opened, it can never be closed again.

The 1927 flood showed the need for levees, the 1937 flood showed levees alone were not enough, this is the first test since 1937. Flood basins, spillways, diversions, were planned for just such a flood, seventy years ago.

The levees were built on river silt, and the river is deeper than the levees are high. along the outside of bends silt laden water is cutting under the levees.

It is not how high as much as how long and how fast. Opening the southern diversions would lower the river, by causing it to flow faster, which will take out levees.

Some failure is planned into the system. There are weak links. South of Vicksburg is one on both sides.

Few people lived there seventy years ago, it was swamps, and better it floods than Baton Rouge to New Orleans.

Take care of yourself, the government told us the levees would hold 17 foot, they failed at 10. They said they would rescue us, they did, a week later.

1570 died of thirst.

Update:

Levee in Greenville held up until after the river crest. At this point there's little to worry about--the levee held up under all the weight of that water and will likely continue to hold as the flood recedes.

My wife, on the other hand, had to make a trip to Jackson today. We'd made a trip down just a few days ago, and the water on US49W in places was within a few feet of the road. My wife tells me that she was one of the last two make it back through on the return trip because by that point water had completely covered one lane of the highway. My understanding is that it is now closed.

US49W closing and other road closings in that area of the Delta, of course, aren't related to any fault of the levee, but rather the backwater plain surrounding the Yazoo River. With the crest passing that area and Vicksburg, the Yazoo water has nowhere to go, hence the farmland flooding. When I moved here, cotton was still king, but the demand for corn has sharply reduced how much cotton is planted out here. Now that there's an increased demand for corn but the supply is getting cut short, I wonder how bad your fuel prices are going to get as a result!

Anyway, THIS WP'er is thankful to still be high and dry.