Record Water for a Mississippi River City

在 ServiceModel 客户端配置部分中，找不到引用协定“TranslatorService.LanguageService”的默认终结点元素。这可能是因为未找到应用程序的配置文件，或者是因为客户端元素中找不到与此协定匹配的终结点元素。
在 ServiceModel 客户端配置部分中，找不到引用协定“TranslatorService.LanguageService”的默认终结点元素。这可能是因为未找到应用程序的配置文件，或者是因为客户端元素中找不到与此协定匹配的终结点元素。

He was staring at a calm puddle of water in which his house sat. A man standing beside Mr. Buck’s mailbox was casting a fishing line into a neighbor’s yard.

“It never came this far,” said Mr. Buck, a 21-year-old college student. “The farthest it ever came was the backyard of that house back there.”

The city of Vicksburg sits safely on lofty bluffs, except where it does not. The Kings neighborhood, where Mr. Buck lives in the north part of town, is one of the places where it does not.

Sunday in Kings was, for the most part, as it is in any other neighborhood, full of lawnmowers, barbecues and men standing around talking about nothing in particular. The difference was the muddy lake that was slowly consuming the neighborhood from the back.

Variances in elevation that would have gone unnoticed a few weeks ago now separate those who are nervous but dry from those whose houses are submerged nearly to the eaves. The water was not rising, residents said, so much as it was spreading, quietly. And the river that had pushed the water here was churning ferociously.

Around 10 a.m. on Sunday, according to officials from the Army Corps of Engineers, the river broke the record elevation set here during the flood of 1927, rising to 56.3 feet, 13 feet above flood stage and 1.2 feet below the predicted crest on Thursday. It was flowing by at a rate of nearly 17 million gallons a second, which is the highest rate it is likely to reach in its entire race down to the Gulf of Mexico.

Those numbers may be nerve-racking for those along its banks, but the weekend also brought some relatively good news: the failure of a predicted rain storm to appear has resulted in a lower estimated crest downriver at Natchez.

Furthermore, the Yazoo River, engorged with Mississippi backwater, had been projected to overtop its levees at some point this weekend, flooding 285,000 acres of delta farmland and threatening some anxious country towns. But the overtopping, designed into the system as a sort of relief valve, has not happened yet.

If the Mississippi comes in a few inches lower than predicted as it passes Vicksburg, the overtopping may not happen at all.

“It’s going to be really close,” said Robert Simrall, the chief of water control for the Vicksburg district of the corps.

These yardsticks are more or less irrelevant for the residents of Kings. While the river has been indifferent to income, folding over multimillion-dollar homes and valuable farmland in the delta along with single-wide trailers in Kings, the consequences for rich and poor vary considerably.

“Out of the whole community, I would say it’s probably three families with flood insurance,” Mr. Buck said.

The worries here are as much about the water as what it will bring in the weeks it sits here. Snakes, of course. Just about everyone in the neighborhood knows someone who has recently seen an alligator, or killed one, or lost a dog to one. More acute is the worry about who might come to their homes if they have to evacuate, and what those people might do or take.

The traffic was slow along Washington Street here, as gawkers pulled off on the increasingly narrow shoulder, emerging in Sunday clothes to take pictures of an old brick church that itself was undergoing something of a full-immersion baptism.

“This is ridiculous,” said Tawanna Bush, a 36-year-old waitress at a Cracker Barrel restaurant, looking at the top third of her uncle’s house. “Is it a sign?”

“Yeah, it’s a sign,” said Jackson Floyd, 49, offering the practical fatalism of those who have known hard luck. “It’s a sign that it’s time to move and get another house.”

Catrin Einhorn contributed reporting.

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Mississippi River Crests in Memphis

It is expected to stay at or near that level for several days before receding as the crest moves downriver, said Susan Buchanan of the National Weather Service.

The federal declaration allows residents and businesses in flooded areas to apply for grants and loans for temporary housing and uninsured property losses, the White House said in a statement Tuesday.

Despite the presence of many people who ventured to the riverside to have a look, county officials have urged residents to take caution, offering the same advice one might give in the presence of a mad dog: keep your distance until it moves on.

“There is a lot of fascination with the mighty Mississippi, but it’s a river in rage right now,” Bob Nations, the director of the Shelby County Office of Preparedness, said at a Monday afternoon briefing. “It’s a love-hate relationship we have with it.”

Mr. Nations emphasized that the real flooding concern was not necessarily with the Mississippi itself but with tributaries like the Wolf and Loosahatchie Rivers that feed into it. The levees along the river itself were holding up, officials from the Army Corps of Engineers said on Monday.

But the tributaries and creeks, deluged with backwater flowing from the Mississippi, are escaping their banks in suburbs and mobile home parks in Memphis and surrounding Shelby County.

Using maps and modeling, county emergency officials estimated that roughly 3,000 properties were likely to be affected by the flooding. And 2,000 more could be affected if the river rises another few feet, city officials said.

The authorities in Memphis have been going door to door for days in flood-prone parts of Shelby County, urging hundreds of residents to move to higher ground. By Monday, about 400 people were staying in three shelters in the area, though others have also left their homes.

“I couldn’t see myself being rescued from a rooftop,” said Lanette Coleman, who left her home in north Memphis on Friday and was staying in a hotel.

Ms. Coleman did not believe her house would flood, but with water starting to pool in parts of her neighborhood, she did not want to be trapped. She was also wary of having to face down snakes, stray dogs and other uninvited guests that are already starting to show up with the floodwaters. “I’ve never seen so many cats,” she said.

Among the pets at emergency shelters, the Shelby County Office of Preparedness reported, are 65 dogs, 18 cats, 15 puppies and, curiously, two ducks.

As the crest of the river rolled into Memphis, it began to recede in other hard-hit areas. Upriver in Tiptonville, Tenn., officials are waiting for the water to come down a little more so they can check on the estimated 75 homes damaged by flooding.

In Arkansas, where the crest of the White River is slowly moving south, 16 towns have been affected by flooding, said Renee Preslar, a spokeswoman for the state emergency management agency.

The recent flooding has been responsible for at least three deaths in Arkansas, bringing to 18 the toll of people who have died in the state since a wave of heavy rains and storms came through on April 23.

Downriver, anxiety and preparations continued to mount. As some state prisoners were filling sand bags in Mississippi and Louisiana, about 200 inmates at the Louisiana State Penitentiary in Angola, which is bordered on three sides by the Mississippi, have been evacuated and more will move soon.

On Monday morning, before a crowd of onlookers, the Army Corps of Engineers partly opened the Bonnet Carré spillway, allowing some of the river to flow into Lake Pontchartrain and thus relieving pressure as the Mississippi approaches New Orleans.

But that is not likely to be enough, and corps officials have requested permission from the Mississippi River Commission, a federal advisory agency, to open the Morganza spillway in Louisiana. That spillway has been opened only once, in 1973, and even a partial opening would result in widespread flooding that would affect thousands of people in parts of southern Louisiana.

“It’s not a light decision,” said Bob Anderson, a corps spokesman, adding that certain measurements on the river would determine if and when the opening should take place. But, he said, “it’s the way the system was designed.”

Parish officials have been going door to door in communities that would flood, urging residents to move to higher ground.

But on Monday, the crest was having its moment in Memphis, bringing out-of-town gawkers and businesspeople on their lunch breaks to the riverfront to watch the river as it made its lazy way through town.

Even some whose homes sit in uneasy proximity to the floodwaters insisted on a front-row seat.

Cornelius Holliday, 62, who still lives in the house on North Stonewall Street where he was born and raised, said he was not about to move out now. The Wolf River has settled into his backyard, where it has swallowed an old Chevy Corsica and the makeshift kennel for his hunting dogs.

Two beagles, a coon hound and two 8-month-old puppies have been evacuated, Mr. Holliday said, and if the Wolf makes a move toward the house, he will box things up and wait it out with his wife in the attic.

“When that water started to come, I put spikes in the ground,” he said. “I did my own measurement.” It was, he discovered, as high as forecasters were saying.

“In 62 years,” he said, “I’ve never seen it that bad.”

Judith Tackett reported from Memphis, and Campbell Robertson from New Orleans.

 

Mississippi River Crests in Memphis

It is expected to stay at or near that level for several days before receding as the crest moves downriver, said Susan Buchanan of the National Weather Service.

The federal declaration allows residents and businesses in flooded areas to apply for grants and loans for temporary housing and uninsured property losses, the White House said in a statement Tuesday.

Despite the presence of many people who ventured to the riverside to have a look, county officials have urged residents to take caution, offering the same advice one might give in the presence of a mad dog: keep your distance until it moves on.

“There is a lot of fascination with the mighty Mississippi, but it’s a river in rage right now,” Bob Nations, the director of the Shelby County Office of Preparedness, said at a Monday afternoon briefing. “It’s a love-hate relationship we have with it.”

Mr. Nations emphasized that the real flooding concern was not necessarily with the Mississippi itself but with tributaries like the Wolf and Loosahatchie Rivers that feed into it. The levees along the river itself were holding up, officials from the Army Corps of Engineers said on Monday.

But the tributaries and creeks, deluged with backwater flowing from the Mississippi, are escaping their banks in suburbs and mobile home parks in Memphis and surrounding Shelby County.

Using maps and modeling, county emergency officials estimated that roughly 3,000 properties were likely to be affected by the flooding. And 2,000 more could be affected if the river rises another few feet, city officials said.

The authorities in Memphis have been going door to door for days in flood-prone parts of Shelby County, urging hundreds of residents to move to higher ground. By Monday, about 400 people were staying in three shelters in the area, though others have also left their homes.

“I couldn’t see myself being rescued from a rooftop,” said Lanette Coleman, who left her home in north Memphis on Friday and was staying in a hotel.

Ms. Coleman did not believe her house would flood, but with water starting to pool in parts of her neighborhood, she did not want to be trapped. She was also wary of having to face down snakes, stray dogs and other uninvited guests that are already starting to show up with the floodwaters. “I’ve never seen so many cats,” she said.

Among the pets at emergency shelters, the Shelby County Office of Preparedness reported, are 65 dogs, 18 cats, 15 puppies and, curiously, two ducks.

As the crest of the river rolled into Memphis, it began to recede in other hard-hit areas. Upriver in Tiptonville, Tenn., officials are waiting for the water to come down a little more so they can check on the estimated 75 homes damaged by flooding.

In Arkansas, where the crest of the White River is slowly moving south, 16 towns have been affected by flooding, said Renee Preslar, a spokeswoman for the state emergency management agency.

The recent flooding has been responsible for at least three deaths in Arkansas, bringing to 18 the toll of people who have died in the state since a wave of heavy rains and storms came through on April 23.

Downriver, anxiety and preparations continued to mount. As some state prisoners were filling sand bags in Mississippi and Louisiana, about 200 inmates at the Louisiana State Penitentiary in Angola, which is bordered on three sides by the Mississippi, have been evacuated and more will move soon.

On Monday morning, before a crowd of onlookers, the Army Corps of Engineers partly opened the Bonnet Carré spillway, allowing some of the river to flow into Lake Pontchartrain and thus relieving pressure as the Mississippi approaches New Orleans.

But that is not likely to be enough, and corps officials have requested permission from the Mississippi River Commission, a federal advisory agency, to open the Morganza spillway in Louisiana. That spillway has been opened only once, in 1973, and even a partial opening would result in widespread flooding that would affect thousands of people in parts of southern Louisiana.

“It’s not a light decision,” said Bob Anderson, a corps spokesman, adding that certain measurements on the river would determine if and when the opening should take place. But, he said, “it’s the way the system was designed.”

Parish officials have been going door to door in communities that would flood, urging residents to move to higher ground.

But on Monday, the crest was having its moment in Memphis, bringing out-of-town gawkers and businesspeople on their lunch breaks to the riverfront to watch the river as it made its lazy way through town.

Even some whose homes sit in uneasy proximity to the floodwaters insisted on a front-row seat.

Cornelius Holliday, 62, who still lives in the house on North Stonewall Street where he was born and raised, said he was not about to move out now. The Wolf River has settled into his backyard, where it has swallowed an old Chevy Corsica and the makeshift kennel for his hunting dogs.

Two beagles, a coon hound and two 8-month-old puppies have been evacuated, Mr. Holliday said, and if the Wolf makes a move toward the house, he will box things up and wait it out with his wife in the attic.

“When that water started to come, I put spikes in the ground,” he said. “I did my own measurement.” It was, he discovered, as high as forecasters were saying.

“In 62 years,” he said, “I’ve never seen it that bad.”

Judith Tackett reported from Memphis, and Campbell Robertson from New Orleans.

 

Mississippi River Crests in Memphis

It is expected to stay at or near that level for several days before receding as the crest moves downriver, said Susan Buchanan of the National Weather Service.

The federal declaration allows residents and businesses in flooded areas to apply for grants and loans for temporary housing and uninsured property losses, the White House said in a statement Tuesday.

Despite the presence of many people who ventured to the riverside to have a look, county officials have urged residents to take caution, offering the same advice one might give in the presence of a mad dog: keep your distance until it moves on.

“There is a lot of fascination with the mighty Mississippi, but it’s a river in rage right now,” Bob Nations, the director of the Shelby County Office of Preparedness, said at a Monday afternoon briefing. “It’s a love-hate relationship we have with it.”

Mr. Nations emphasized that the real flooding concern was not necessarily with the Mississippi itself but with tributaries like the Wolf and Loosahatchie Rivers that feed into it. The levees along the river itself were holding up, officials from the Army Corps of Engineers said on Monday.

But the tributaries and creeks, deluged with backwater flowing from the Mississippi, are escaping their banks in suburbs and mobile home parks in Memphis and surrounding Shelby County.

Using maps and modeling, county emergency officials estimated that roughly 3,000 properties were likely to be affected by the flooding. And 2,000 more could be affected if the river rises another few feet, city officials said.

The authorities in Memphis have been going door to door for days in flood-prone parts of Shelby County, urging hundreds of residents to move to higher ground. By Monday, about 400 people were staying in three shelters in the area, though others have also left their homes.

“I couldn’t see myself being rescued from a rooftop,” said Lanette Coleman, who left her home in north Memphis on Friday and was staying in a hotel.

Ms. Coleman did not believe her house would flood, but with water starting to pool in parts of her neighborhood, she did not want to be trapped. She was also wary of having to face down snakes, stray dogs and other uninvited guests that are already starting to show up with the floodwaters. “I’ve never seen so many cats,” she said.

Among the pets at emergency shelters, the Shelby County Office of Preparedness reported, are 65 dogs, 18 cats, 15 puppies and, curiously, two ducks.

As the crest of the river rolled into Memphis, it began to recede in other hard-hit areas. Upriver in Tiptonville, Tenn., officials are waiting for the water to come down a little more so they can check on the estimated 75 homes damaged by flooding.

In Arkansas, where the crest of the White River is slowly moving south, 16 towns have been affected by flooding, said Renee Preslar, a spokeswoman for the state emergency management agency.

The recent flooding has been responsible for at least three deaths in Arkansas, bringing to 18 the toll of people who have died in the state since a wave of heavy rains and storms came through on April 23.

Downriver, anxiety and preparations continued to mount. As some state prisoners were filling sand bags in Mississippi and Louisiana, about 200 inmates at the Louisiana State Penitentiary in Angola, which is bordered on three sides by the Mississippi, have been evacuated and more will move soon.

On Monday morning, before a crowd of onlookers, the Army Corps of Engineers partly opened the Bonnet Carré spillway, allowing some of the river to flow into Lake Pontchartrain and thus relieving pressure as the Mississippi approaches New Orleans.

But that is not likely to be enough, and corps officials have requested permission from the Mississippi River Commission, a federal advisory agency, to open the Morganza spillway in Louisiana. That spillway has been opened only once, in 1973, and even a partial opening would result in widespread flooding that would affect thousands of people in parts of southern Louisiana.

“It’s not a light decision,” said Bob Anderson, a corps spokesman, adding that certain measurements on the river would determine if and when the opening should take place. But, he said, “it’s the way the system was designed.”

Parish officials have been going door to door in communities that would flood, urging residents to move to higher ground.

But on Monday, the crest was having its moment in Memphis, bringing out-of-town gawkers and businesspeople on their lunch breaks to the riverfront to watch the river as it made its lazy way through town.

Even some whose homes sit in uneasy proximity to the floodwaters insisted on a front-row seat.

Cornelius Holliday, 62, who still lives in the house on North Stonewall Street where he was born and raised, said he was not about to move out now. The Wolf River has settled into his backyard, where it has swallowed an old Chevy Corsica and the makeshift kennel for his hunting dogs.

Two beagles, a coon hound and two 8-month-old puppies have been evacuated, Mr. Holliday said, and if the Wolf makes a move toward the house, he will box things up and wait it out with his wife in the attic.

“When that water started to come, I put spikes in the ground,” he said. “I did my own measurement.” It was, he discovered, as high as forecasters were saying.

“In 62 years,” he said, “I’ve never seen it that bad.”

Judith Tackett reported from Memphis, and Campbell Robertson from New Orleans.