Careful river watchers probably thought something was going on by late Thursday night and into Friday morning.

Reported river levels seemed to be doing something unheard of in weeks. They were slowly dropping.

Not until around noon on Friday could the National Weather Service confirm that the Mississippi River at Natchez appeared to be cresting.

It was welcome news for a community that has been singularly focused for three weeks since the record-high river levels were first forecast.

Unfortunately, the sigh of relief many of us felt when the word “cresting” appeared is probably premature.

Our area is not, well, out of the water yet. The record high river levels will continue for days and days. High water will continue to pressure levees and pose a risk to areas protected by them.

The caution, concern and fight (for some) against the power of the river are not over yet. Hopefully, the worst of the great flood of 2011 is behind us.

Even if the water gets no higher and no levee problems are found in the days ahead, the cost of the flood will be high for our community.

Hundreds of thousands of dollars and thousands and thousands of man-hours continue to be poured into the fight against the river.

Only time will tell if those investments prove to be sound ones.