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River flood stage predictions change again
Published Thursday, March 27, 2008
VIDALIA — The Mississippi River can be a mysterious thing, and for the second time in a week it has defied predictions of when it would reach flood stage.
“It didn’t happen like it was supposed to Sunday, and we are never quite sure how the river is going to act,” Concordia Parish Emergency Management Director Morris White said.
The river was expected to reach flood stage — 48 feet above gauge zero — by Wednesday morning.
Photo by Marcus Frazier
Louisiana resident Jeremy Walsworth checks in on neighbor Dayrel Crowl Wednesday afternoon on the Old River. Cut off by the high waters, boats are the only means of getting to a next-door neighbor’s home on Minorca Road.
That didn’t happen until last night, and Wednesday the National Weather Service revised its predictions of when the river would crest and at what point.
The rising water is now predicted to crest at 53 feet — down 0.3 feet from the original prediction — April 6.
The adjustments to the prediction were made after water began unexpectedly filling into storage areas, oxbow lakes between the levees that were lower than usual because of this year’s drought, NWS Hydrologist Marty Pope said.
“What has happened is that this filling in to the oxbow lakes is slowing down the flow of the wave downstream,” Pope said.
National Weather Service weather models are predicting heavy rains in the Ohio River valley, which could affect the flow of water into the Mississippi River, Pope said.
If those rains do happen, that will affect how slow the river is to recede after it rises, Fifth District Levee Board Member Reynold Nimsky said.
“The longer it stays up the more chances we have of having a problem,” Nimsky said.
The levee board is currently patrolling the levees to watch for signs of weakness, and Nimsky said so far everything has been uneventful.
As for White, he said he expects everything to stay that way.
“I look for the river to get a little high for four to six days and then go back down,” White said. “I’ve seen it do that so many times before.”
Comments
Posted by avoylles (anonymous) on March 26, 2008 at 11:18 p.m. (Suggest removal)
The gentleman from the Fifth Louisiana Levee District is Reynold Minsky. He is president of the Fifth District Levee board.
Posted by gator (anonymous) on March 27, 2008 at 9:34 p.m. (Suggest removal)
I realize that this is not the place but I did call the police also . If anyone knows who owns the 6 brown horses in pasture off Fisk avenue in Natchez please check on your animals . I saw 5 Natchez high students with pellets guns shooting and chasing those horses . Those retarded kids are going to seriously injure those horses . The pasture is across the street from what used to be a skating rink years ago . Its in the blue bird neighborhood,fidelity tire company is there also . There's a trailer park right in front of the horse pasture ( what used to be the Burns furniture store also ) . Anyone reading this and knows the owners of those animals please call him .
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