Almost half of Mississippi's counties are being affected by rising floodwaters pushing hundreds of thousands of acres of agricultural farmland underwater. And as MPB's Jasmine Ellis reports some parts of the state are seeing record flooding.
The high waters in the Mississippi River and the Yazoo backwater levee are causing the flooding in the state. Greg Michel is executive director of the Mississippi Emergency Management Agency or MEMA. He says the backwater flooding is causing the most problems.
“So the backwater flooding is going to be reaching historical heights,” said Michel. “It is projected to get to be some of the highest that we’ve seen since the flooding back in 1973. And could get as high as 98 feet in the backwater.
Michel says the two combined flooding events have affected 32 Mississippi counties and 550,000 acres of agricultural farmland. The counties most affected are Issaquena, Yazoo, Sharkey, and Warren.
The flooding has displaced more than 100 people and more than 87 homes have been effected in Warren County says John Elfer. He is director of the Warren County Emergency Management Agency.
“This is not like a tornado that comes through and displaces people in a short amount of time,” said Elfer. “This is a disaster that takes a long time to get here and a long time to leave. Some of these people may be out of their homes for over a month.”
MEMA says flooding will last a couple more weeks and might possibly last another month especially with more rain coming.
