‘Continue to pray.’ Levee Board provides updates and records for the 2019 Backwater Flood

Today, the Yazoo Backwater is finally expected to fall below 87 feet. It has been above that mark since Jan. 4, 2019, for a record 219 consecutive days.

Peter Nimrod, chief engineer for the Mississippi Levee Board provided the Backwater forecast yesterday in an email.

“This is the last update – until the next event (which I hope is not for another 10 years!)” Nimrod wrote. He also expressed thanks to “elected public officials who have visited the Mississippi South Delta and have discovered the horrors of the Backwater Flood and its negative impacts to the people, homes, roads, farmland, wildlife, trees and the environment. These elected officials are pushing for the Pumps to be built and I cannot thank them enough.”

Among the other highlights Nimrod provided:

• Tomorrow the Mississippi River’s Red River Landing in Louisiana will fall below Flood Stage. It has been above Flood Stage since Dec. 27, 2018, for a record 227 consecutive days.
• The Mississippi River is dropping 0.5 feet to 0.8 feet per day. The depth at Vicksburg is now well below flood stage (43 feet) at 34.7 feet. The river will steadily drop to 28 feet in the next four weeks. The river at Vicksburg spent 162 consecutive days above flood stage, from Feb. 17 to July 28, which was exceeded only by the 185 consecutive days during the Great Mississippi River Flood of 1927. The Vicksburg gauge crested at 51.4 feet on March 12, 2019, the 5th highest crest ever recorded. The 2011 record of 57.1 feet remains unbroken.
• The Backwater is dropping 0.9 feet per day.
• The Little Sunflower Structure gates are open.
• The Steele Bayou Structure gates are also open and passing 45,000 cubic feet per second of water. To put that in perspective, that amount of water would fill up an Olympic size swimming pool (660,000 gallons) in less than 2 seconds. It would put a football field under 10 feet of water in 13 seconds. It would fill up the entire Superdome (155,000 cubic feet) in 57 minutes.
• Eagle Lake is currently at 89.06 feet. The Muddy Bayou Structure is open.
• Wolf Lake is currently at 93.37 feet.
• The rain forecast for the next seven days in the Delta is 0.75 inches to 1.5 inches. The period from April 2018 until March 2019 holds the record for precipitation in any 12-month period since 1895 in the Ohio Valley, the Midwest and the Northeast regions of the United States. All of that water contributed heavily to this year’s flood.

The water flowing out of this culvert has eaten away at the ground above it. This area cannot be repaired until the water goes down. This damage and structural concerns related to this culvert, in particular, is the main reason Highway 465 cannot be opened.

Nimrod also provided several road updates, among them that Highway 16 in the Delta National Forest between Rolling Fork and Holly Bluff has re-appeared from the floodwaters; however, some major damage will need to be repaired before it is reopened to the public.

For residents of Eagle Lake, Highway 465 between Highway 61 and the Yazoo Backwater Levee is above the water line, and the Mississippi Department of Transportation has cleaned it and is in the process of repairing damage. The road has also re-appeared between the levee and Eagle Lake, but the water there is draining very slowly due to the small cross drain culverts under the highway. MDOT has found some damage on this section but must wait until the water recedes before starting repairs. These sections remain closed; however, Low-water Bridge Road and Goose Lake Road are both open.

Near Wolf Lake, Satartia Road east of the Will Whittington East Guide Levee is open to the public.

“Please continue to pray for the victims of this Backwater Flood Event – those who lost their homes, lost their farmland, lost their businesses, lost their jobs, had to drive around the world to get home, the 2 Mississippi South Delta residents that lost their lives due to the Backwater Flood, and the wildlife, trees and environment that has all been decimated,” Nimrod wrote.

“Please continue to pray for the decision-makers that they will understand the destruction of this Backwater Flood and will help turn this project around.”

The original USACE plan including the location of the Steele Bayou pumps.

The Levee Board is among many that say the extent of the damage would not have been nearly as extensive had the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers been permitted to complete its flood relief plan designed after the historic Great Mississippi Flood of 1927. Construction of levees and channels began in the 1940s, but were halted in 2008 when the Environmental Protection Agency vetoed completion of the Yazoo Backwater Area Pumps at the Steele Bayou under pressure to protect the area’s wetlands.

If the pumps had been in place the Backwater would have crested at 92.5 feet instead of 98.2 feet, the board asserts. At 92.5 feet no homes would have flooded and no highways would have overtopped. At 92.5 feet, 354,000 total acres would be flooded instead of 548,000 acres; 109,000 acres of crop land would have flooded instead of 220,000 acres.

“Please continue to pray that common sense will prevail and the Pumps will soon be built to help protect the people, wildlife and trees!” Nimrod wrote.