Floods hit Mississippi after days of storms
FLOWOOD, Miss. — The authorities in charge of the dam that regulates the flow of water from a sprawling reservoir into the Pearl River strained to hold off the inevitable.
Downstream from the dam were winding roads packed with mobile homes, subdivisions with tidy rows of brick houses, and farther along, the heart of Mississippi’s state government in Jackson.
The dam, built mainly for water supply purposes, also helped to keep those areas from flooding.
But there had been days of torrential rain, and the Ross R. Barnett Reservoir, a 33,000-acre lake northeast of Jackson, was filling to the brim. Sooner or later, officials cautioned, something would have to give.
“We committed to allow time for the people downstream to evacuate and prepare, and we will hold to that promise as long as we can,” John G. Sigman, general manager of Pearl River Valley Water Supply District, which oversees the reservoir, said in an update posted on the agency’s Facebook page on Saturday morning.
“We will reach capacity,” he added, “and have no option but to release the water.”
Time ran out on Saturday evening.
The dam’s spillway was opened, unleashing a surge of water into the already swollen river, fueling one of the most severe floods to hit the central part of Mississippi in decades.
On Sunday, state officials continued to urge residents of flood-threatened areas to clear out, warning that the worst was still to come.
“We do not anticipate this situation ending any time soon,” Gov. Tate Reeves said on Sunday during a briefing at a state emergency operations center in Pearl, Mississippi, just outside of Jackson. “It will be days before we are out of the woods and the water starts to recede.”
The governor repeated a plea that he and other officials started making as soon as the gravity of the flooding became clear: Get moving.
“Protect yourself,” he said, “and protect your family.”
The river reached levels on Sunday that had not been seen in more than 35 years. Water swamped neighborhoods just below the dam and downstream on the river.
Some roads were left impassable, and rescuers had to extract people who had been hemmed in by floodwaters. Still, the authorities said on Sunday afternoon that there had been few reports of injuries and only a limited number of calls for assistance.
Water levels did not rise as quickly overnight as officials had anticipated, but officials braced for the flooding to continue to rise and spread, reaching farther into Jackson, the state capital, as well as other communities situated along the river. Forecasters have projected that by Monday the river would crest as high as 38 feet, a mark not seen since 1983.
Law enforcement officers went door to door over the weekend, repeating in person the call to leave. Officials estimated that more than 2,400 structures would be affected by the flooding — most of them in Hinds County, which includes Jackson, but also some in neighboring Rankin and Madison counties. But the exact extent of the physical damage remained unclear, and officials said it would not be fully known until the water recedes.