South faces mudslides, downed trees

Officials say hundreds of Miss. homes could flood

HUNTSVILLE, Ala. — Days of torrential rain across the Southeast left residents having to deal with rising rivers, falling trees, weakened dams and mudslides Thursday as storms finally subsided.

Multiple vehicles plowed into trees that fell across a highway in Mississippi, and officials in the capital of Jackson warned some residents to evacuate in preparation for expected flooding.

A soggy hillside collapsed near a casino in Vicksburg next to the Mississippi River, while a flooded pumping station in Alabama forced officials to close schools and ask residents to conserve water.

Mississippi emergency management officials said hundreds of homes could flood in Jackson and its suburbs in the coming days when the Pearl River overflows its banks. They said residents would need to stay away from their homes for three to four days.

Officials in Starkville, Mississippi, were worried that aroundthe-clock pumping was not doing enough to relieve the pressure on the rain-swollen Oktibbeha County Lake, where part of a dam collapsed

in a mudslide last month.

Along the Mississippi River in Vicksburg, Mississippi, part of the parking lot at Waterview Casino and Hotel was covered with soil and grass after a soggy hillside collapsed, but no one was hurt.

Alabama transportation officials shut down a major highway leading to Huntsville because of a crack that developed in the road after days of heavy rain. Crews were repairing both sides of U.S. Highway 231 near Lacey’s Springs.

Paul Ingram The Associated Press Dirt covers a large part of the main parking lot at Waterview Casino and Hotel in Vicksburg, Miss., on Thursday. A portion of an adjacent hill slid down on the casino’s parking lot Wednesday night. No injuries were reported, and no cars were damaged.