Floods Claim Lake Fest 2019

Another victim has fallen to the Great Backwater Flood of 2019.  LakeFest 2019 organizers announced they are canceling this year’s event on the 25th of May due to the flood.

The concern is the roadways and land will not have recovered enough from the historic flood.  Additionally, Warren County declared an emergency evacuation of the area making it impossible to get insurance for the event.  There is no guarantee the water will have receded enough for the declaration to be lifted by the 25th.

The Mississippi River at Vicksburg went above 43 feet on January 11, 2019, but dipped back down below flood stage about two weeks later.  Late in the day on February 15th the river began a rapid climb and peaked at 51.43 feet above gage on the 12th of March.  Since then the river has dropped and held, dropped and held several times.  Today it is at 47.25 feet.

However, the issue is the area north of the Yazoo river at 61 called ‘the Backwater’.  Basically a massive swath of land that drains all the water from the areas north of it.  This area includes Eagle Lake, Valley Park, surrounding areas, and hundreds of thousands of acres of farmland.  At the peak over 500,000 acres were flooded and 200,000 plus of those acres were cropland.  Residents of the area are frustrated with what they perceive to be non-caring government and an uninterested press.