CNHI/The Star Herald
KOSCIUSKO —
If you go to the center of the State of Mississippi map and head West, you will find the a crooked and gnarly Issaquena County with Sharkey County right up against it.
Both are places that I call home. Home – where the land is as flat and the people’s laughter is as rich as the soil, where cotton, corn and soybeans grow.
It’s a simpler life where your home-cooked meals consist of butter beans and corn bread with plenty of sweet tea.
And now, it’s my home that is preparing for the mighty Mississippi River’s overflowing contents.
‘Be prepared’
I traveled home Friday and even though Rolling Fork probably won’t see any water, my parents, sister and I are now prepared.
We’ve packed photos, aged hand-written letters and mementos of our childhood. Those only one-of-a-kind items that money can’t buy.
The attic has been cleaned out and is ready for more stuff. Like the Boys Scouts of America boast “Be prepared.”
Last Wednesday, a public meeting was held in Rolling Fork with the following findings being reported by The Deer Creek Pilot:
Expect backwater to reach 95 feet, unless the Yazoo Backwater Levee is breached.
If that occurs, Corps and Levee Board predict backwater levels at 106. People in areas of Issaquena and Sharkey Counties who were flooded in 2008 should prepare to leave their homes in the next few days.
Those at elevations of 92-95 should also be making preparations to relocate or secure their belongings.
Packing up
My first home was in the small community of Valley Park in Issaquena County.
While the house that my parents and I lived in is no longer there, there are still Newmans in these parts.
My great-aunt and uncle, Florence and Horace Newman, left their home on Tuesday and will be staying with their son.
Packing up their home was no easy task, when several generations of Newmans have lived in that house including my dad.
When you’ve got lots of family, you got lots of family stuff.
’79 flood
As I have been told, in the 1979 flood, the Newman house had two feet of water in it and it was six months before they moved back in.
There are photos of me “fishing” out of a the back end of my dad’s truck and in a boat in the flood waters that hit the area a year after my birth. Our house wasn’t flooded. Hopefully, that will be the case this time.
Grandpa says
My grandpa, at age 91, doesn’t think the flood waters will be lapping up at his door in Rolling Fork.
If you’ve survived the 1927 flood on the Mississippi River bank, then the flood of 2011 shouldn’t be hard to out last.
So while you’re saying your prayers for those devastated by the recent tornadoes, add the folks in the Delta. They need it.
Leslie N. Dees is the managing editor at The Star-Herald. Email her at editor@starherald.net or follow her on Twitter at www.twitter.com/lndees
