After months of ongoing flooding in the Mississippi Delta, many residents are still displaced from their homes and farmers are unsure about this summer's planting season. MPB’s Alexandra Watts reports.
As you drive through parts of the Mississippi Delta, roads are still covered with rising floodwaters. And acres of fields and farmland look like rivers and lakes.
Clay Adcock is a farmer in Holly Bluff, and 4,000 out of his 6,000 acres of farmland have flooded. He has not been able to plant a single seed this season.
“I know financially, it’s going to be really hard,” he said. “I don’t know whether I’ll survive this, or what. I’m kind of looking at some of my options on what may be some of my options. I can't really answer that. I’ve never been in this situation, unfortunately. I know it’s going to be bad.”
Adcock says farmers aren’t the only ones affected by the flooding. He said communities throughout the Delta are feeling the effects.
“This year, with the flooding, half the hunting season was closed. So that hurt your grocery stores that are used to selling products to the hunters. Flooding is not good for any industry in this area at all.”
Many of the residents in the Eagle Lake community in Warren County have evacuated their homes because of the rising floodwaters.
There is only one way in and one way out of Eagle Lake. She said she has seen displaced wildlife around her home and the community.
"And right now, the boat landing is completely obscured and under water,” she said.
“Basically, the water is level with the parking lot for the boat landing. We’re looking at dead fish floating in the water. We’ve probably seen eight snakes since we’ve been standing here.”
As the flood waters continue to rise at Eagle Lake, Dahl expects more people in her community will be evacuated in the coming days.
