As waters recede in places, thoughts turn to the damage

 Floodwaters surround the Kings community of Vicksburg, Miss., Thursday, May 19,  2011. The floodwaters from the Mississippi river are expected to crest Thursday in Vicksburg.   For thousands of people forced from their homes by the rising Mississippi River, life has become a tedious waiting game: waiting for meals at shelters, waiting for the latest word on their flooded homes, waiting for the river to fall.
Floodwaters surround the Kings community of Vicksburg, Miss., Thursday, May 19, 2011. The floodwaters from the Mississippi river are expected to crest Thursday in Vicksburg. For thousands of people forced from their homes by the rising Mississippi River, life has become a tedious waiting game: waiting for meals at shelters, waiting for the latest word on their flooded homes, waiting for the river to fall.

— Muddy, contaminated water continued to keep thousands from their homes along the Mississippi River and its backwaters Thursday as officials in Vicksburg, Miss., confirmed the first flood-related death in that state.

Meanwhile in Arkansas, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers officials continued to monitor 640 miles of levees as water slowly ebbed.

“They’re holding, but there’s been a tremendous amount of pressure to the system,” said Jim Pogue, a spokesman for the Corps in Memphis, which oversees the river in several Arkansas counties.

“We’ve not had any failures, but once the water recedes, we’re sure there’ll be a lot of rebuilding [that needs] to be done.”

Elsewhere along the river, officials are beginning to take stock of the work they’ll need to do once the water recedes, which in some areas could be nearly a month away.

Roads, bridges and levees will need to be inspected and in some cases extensively repaired. At least 21 harbors along the river, as well as the channel from Baton Rouge to New Orleans, will require dredging because the water has moved so much silt, according to the Corps.

The extent of flood damage won’t be known for months, and Corps officials don’t yet know the cost to “reset” the Mississippi River flood-control system.

“I couldn’t even begin to calculate the dredging work alone. It’s going to be a significant amount of work to restore this system. ... On the order of millions? Absolutely. How many? I don’t know,” said Mike Petersen, a spokes-man for the Corps’ Mississippi Valley Division.

In Louisiana, residents in the Atchafalaya River basin saw water from the Mississippi River creep farther south from the Morganza spillway, reaching near Interstate 10 by Thursday afternoon, Petersen said.

FLOODING FATALITY

Flood-waters claimed their first Mississippi victim Thursday, while in Louisiana officials continued to clear people out of endangered communities.

After lingering in intensive care since Tuesday, 69-yearold Walter Cook died from a brain injury as a result of oxygen deprivation that he suffered before being pulled from floodwaters near the westernmost part of Vicksburg, Warren County Coroner Doug Huskey said.

Emergency crews reached Cook about 9:35 a.m. Tuesday after he was spotted floating near First East and South Washington streets, Huskey said.

“He was seen in the water, and the next thing you know he was floating. ... He was a little responsive when he got out, but I don’t know why he was down there in the water,” Huskey said.

Cook was pronounced dead at River Region Medical Center at 2:35 a.m. Thursday, Huskey said.

Huskey said he would not order an autopsy in the case.

“I had said I would do one, but I’m not going to do one at the request of the family and [after] meeting with [Cook’s] doctors,” Huskey said when confirming Cook as a flood victim.

The Mississippi River crested Thursday at 57.1 feet at Vicksburg and is expected to begin cresting at Natchez this evening, a day earlier than had been forecast, said Dan Byrd, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Jackson.

Even so, at least 2,900 homes in the state will likely remain flooded or threatened by the flood-waters for weeks, said Jeff Rent, spokesman for the Mississippi Emergency Management Agency.

In Warren County, more than 2,000 residents have been evacuated because either their homes are underwater or they are cut off by flooded streets and highways, Sheriff Martin Pace said.

Pace said his thoughts have already turned to flood damage to roads and bridges.

“As the water recedes, it takes soil with it, so you may have sections of pavement that are just the crust above a gaping hole beneath it. It’s not a case of as soon as the roads are dry you can let traffic on it. It doesn’t happen that quickly,” he said.

Another concern, he said, is keeping residents from wading into polluted and sometimes dangerously contaminated flood-waters.

“A flood of this magnitude has compromised sewage systems, septic tanks - there are fuel cans that have turned over in garages that have been flooded. There are just any number of contaminants in the water,” he said.

In the Atchafalaya River basin of southern Louisiana, at least five residents of the Butte La Rose community have chosen to ignore a mandatory evacuation deadline of this Saturday morning and remained in their homes, said Maj. Ginny Higgins of the St.Martin Parish sheriff’s office.

“We had them sign waivers letting them know ... we won’t be able to come get them,” she said.

Meanwhile, the crest at Butte La Rose has been pushed back from May 25 to May 28, adding to an already long wait, Higgins said.

“What’s made this so hard is just the waiting. The pace hasn’t slowed down for us but the water arriving has. ... We have a long road ahead of us,” she said.

ARKANSAS

In Arkansas City, officials closely watched their levee along the Mississippi River.The river crested Monday at 53.14 feet - the sixth-highest recorded - and had dropped nearly a foot by Thursday evening.

“We’re still in a dangerous condition,” Desha County Judge Mark McElroy said. “The levees are getting softer as the water stays here.”

He said Arkansas Department of Correction inmates have placed thousands of sandbags to stop seepages and leaks along the levee as a precaution.

But McElroy joked about some good news from the flood.

The floodwaters have flushed animals from their habitats, including a wild hog that ran rampant through Arkansas City. McElroy said city officials finally captured the hog and shot it in a residential area.

“We’ve got pork chops now,” he said, laughing. “We’re hoping a cow runs through town next. We like steak.”

Federal Emergency Management Agency teams are to tour a flood-ravaged section of Poinsett County today, where water from a St. Francis River spillway flooded about 50 homes in Payneway.

The teams planned to visit the county earlier in the week, but flooded roads prevented them from seeing all of the damage, said Poinsett County Judge Charles Nix.

“There was so much underwater,” he said. “There was nothing we could do.”

He said he’s sure that the county will be declared a disaster area once the teams complete inspections. Currently, there are 25 Arkansas counties declared as federal disasters.

Meanwhile, the state’s Emergency Operations Center in Little Rock announced that it will close its call center at 4 p.m. today. The line - (888) 683-2336 - was created togather information on damage that residents incurred from storms and flooding. It received 735 calls since opening earlier this month.

Floodwaters will continue to slowly ebb in the state, said John Lewis, a National Weather Service meteorologist in North Little Rock, but they may be delayed if rain falls as forecast for today and Saturday. Up to 3 inches could fall in some areas.

Road closings The list below shows Arkansas roads closed because of high water or washouts as of Thursday afternoon. Up-to-date listings can be found under “fl ood information” at www.arkansashighways.com Road Location ARKANSAS COUNTY Ark. 1 Bridge at the Arkansas/Monroe county line Ark. 17 Mile 9.89 to 14 at Ethel Ark. 44 Mile 5.8 to 6.3 BENTON COUNTY Ark. 264 Section 1 east of Bethel Heights CARROLL COUNTY Ark. 187 Section 0A at Beaver CROSS COUNTY Ark. 163 Two miles south of U.S. 64 at mile 0.15 near Levesque INDEPENDENCE COUNTY Ark. 37 Ark. 122 to Jackson Co.

JACKSON COUNTY Ark. 18 Section 1 from junction of 18 spur to Poinsett Co.

Ark. 37 Mile 5.5 to 6.48 near Grubbs Ark. 37 Ark. 18 to U.S. 67 Ark. 37 Mile 0 to 7.96 near Tuckerman LEE COUNTY Ark. 44 Mile 5.2 south of Marianna Ark. 78 Mile 0 to 4.3 near Aubrey Ark. 121 Mile 7.19 near Holub Ark. 121 Mile 7.5 at Marianna Ark. 243 West of Ark. 121 near Rondo Ark. 259 Mile 0.7 near Moro LONOKE COUNTY Ark. 13 5 miles north of Carlisle MISSISSIPPI COUNTY Ark. 118 Mile 0 to 2.75 at Joiner Ark. 120 Between Tuckertown and O’Donnell Bend Ark. 158 Mile 0 to 3.0 at the fl oodway Ark. 198 From the Mississippi River levee to the end of state maintenance MONROE COUNTY Ark. 1 Bridge at Arkansas/Monroe county line to Marvell Ark. 17 South of Holly Grove Ark. 146 Mile 0 to 9.6 near Lawrenceville Ark. 146 Mile 0 to 9.86 near Holly Grove Ark. 302 Mile 0 to 6.5 near Clarendon PHILLIPS COUNTY Ark. 85 Between U.S. 49 and Ark. 44 Ark. 146 Mile 0 to 5.35 Ark. 318 Between Ark. 85 and Ark. 44 Ark. 318 Ark. 316 to Ark. 20 POINSETT COUNTY Ark. 373 Ark. 14 to Ark. 163 Ark. 373 Ark. 14 to Ark. 214 near Landers PRAIRIE COUNTY Ark. 33 Mile 2.7 to 3.9 at I-40 overpass ST. FRANCIS COUNTY Ark. 50 Mile 0.5 north of Madison Ark. 50 Mile 1.0 WHITE COUNTY Ark. 36 Mile 8.03 east of West Point SOURCE: Arkansas Highway and Transportation Department Arkansas Democrat-Gazette

Front Section, Pages 1 on 05/20/2011

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