Parish declares state of emergency
Published Tuesday, April 8, 2008
VIDALIA — Concordia Parish is in a state of emergency — sort of.
In light of the height of the rising Mississippi River, which is expected to stand at 53.9 feet at 7 a.m. today, Director of Emergency Preparedness Morris White said it was time to declare a state of emergency even though there has been no flooding within the levees.
“It doesn’t make a difference if there is a flood,” White said. “When you have a situation that comes to the point that it may be more than the resources that the parish has can handle, you declare a state of emergency so you have the full power of the federal government.”
If a state of emergency is already declared, the parish does not need to wait for prior approval to use federal funds should the need arise, White said.
To prepare for any event that might occur, White recently ordered 47,000 sandbags for the parish from the Governor’s Office of Homeland Security and Emergency Preparedness.
“I’m not going to be caught unprepared,” White said.
To the south of Concordia Parish, the U.S. Corps of Engineers is expected to make a decision about opening a spillway to take stress off of the levees around New Orleans.
But even if they do that, that will have little effect on the river at the Natchez-Vidalia pass.
“That would only affect the New Orleans area downstream and a small area upstream from the spillway,” Robert Simrall with the U.S. Corps of Engineers said.
Meanwhile, the National Weather Service has slightly modified how it expects the river to crest — downward.
In an updated forecast released Monday, the NWS now predicts the river will crest at 55.5 feet on April 15, approximately a half-foot lower than previously predicted.
The adjustment was made after the NWS examined the current levels and rate of rise at Vicksburg, NWS Hydrologist Marty Pope said.
“They looked at that prediction, and it didn’t seem in line with the readings we were getting in Vicksburg,” Pope said.
That adjustment could be soon re-adjusted, though.
Rain in the Ohio River Valley and in southern Arkansas could bring the expected crest back up, Pope said.
“Even though our five day forecast shows up to five inches, one of our models is starting to show a little more in southern Arkansas,” Pope said. “With that and other heavy rain occurs, there is a chance these (predictions) could go up again. It seems every storm we have gotten lately has taken us a half-foot higher.”
The rising river has taken its toll on the Vidalia riverfront, where it appears approximately five feet of riverbank have been eroded in the last week, Vidalia Marketing Director Glen McGlothin said.
A subterranean concrete barrier will limit the erosion damage to the riverfront, Riverfront Administrator H.L. Irvin said last week.
Vidalia Mayor Hyram Copeland, who went to the riverfront to assess the situation Monday, said he is not worried about the rising water.
“In my opinion, the water would have to rise to above 60 feet (on the river gauge) before it got to the riverwalk,” Copeland said. “I think everything will be fine. The corps of engineers hasn’t called us and said we should be worried, so I’m not.”
The Vidalia Conference and Convention center was built up several feet off the ground.
“Even if it got to the building, the water would have to rise several more feet before it could do anything,” McGlothin said.
The highest recorded crest for the river was 58.04 feet in 1937.