The Mississippi River is not forecast to hit flood stage in Vicksburg at 43 feet, but at 42.9 feet many lower lying areas are experiencing flooding.

Long Lake Road, Chickasaw Road, Laney Camp Road and Ziegler Road were all partially underwater this past weekend.

Warren County Sheriff Martin Pace said people should not go in areas that have been closed by the county’s road department.

“The nationwide phrase that is pumped out by safety experts is ‘Turn around, don’t drown,’ ” he said. “If there’s water over the road, you don’t need to be driving through it because what may just be a few inches on the road, if you drive off the paved area, you may be in a ditch on the side of the road that suddenly is five or six feet deep. Looking at the smooth surface of the water you can’t tell where the road stops.”

Pace said people should also respect local residents’ property in the affected areas.

“You don’t want somebody driving through your yard just because it happens to be under water,” he said. “Then when the water goes down you have ruts in your yard where somebody’s driven through it in a four-wheel drive truck.”

Individuals are legally obligated to adhere to official road closings, Pace said.

“Once the county road department officially closes the road, which they have done on Long Lake and Chickasaw, if you are not a property owner with a legitimate reason to be checking on your property, you can actually be cited for failing to obey the road closed sign,” he said. “Again, this is for the protection of the property and for everyone’s safety.”

Pace said his officers maintain patrol throughout the county 24 hours a day, regardless of floodwater.

“In fact, we increase the patrols in the affected areas,” he said. “First and foremost for safety we don’t want people to go into the floodwaters thinking they can drive through. We’re also of course concerned about property to make sure no one is taking advantage of the fact that some of the homes are not occupied.”

The sheriff’s office has an arsenal of four-wheel drive trucks and boats in their fleet for situations such as this, Pace said.

“We would use the trucks so long it is safe to do so, and at the point that it is no longer safe or practical to use the trucks, we will deploy the boats,” he said. “We are going to continue patrols through the area regardless of the floodwater.”

Stanley Lee, the last remaining full-time resident of Lake Shore Drive, said he had to evacuate from his home.

“Normally you can drive out here at 41 feet, but now it’s up to 42 feet and it’s gotten to the point where you can’t,” he said. “It usually comes every year. In 2011 it got up in my attic.”

Lee said he started evacuating Saturday, March 21, and he is staying in town for now.

“My house is 10 feet off the ground,” he said. “The inconvenience is actually driving out to the property.”

Lee said he drove out about 1,000 yards into the water, then backed out for fear water would get into his muffler.

Pace saw Lee and offered to take him out to his property to check on his cats.

The flooding isn’t all negative, Lee said.

“It replenishes the lake,” he said. “It’ll have anything you can imagine, catfish, brim, buffalo, white perch.”

Though more and more people have left the low-lying community as floods have come and gone, Lee said he’s in for the long haul.

“I love it,” he said. “It’s so peaceful. It’s like being away in a totally different world, but it’s five minutes from town.”