[05/14/02]Crops will be lost to the rising river in the Vicksburg area as a new crest forecast now says the Mississippi will top out at 43 feet precisely flood stage.

The previous forecast was a 42.5-foot reading on the Vicksburg gauge May 24. Today’s prediction is for a May 29 crest much later than normal.

“We’ve gotten a lot of water down the (Upper) Mississippi River,” said Angelo Delessandro, a National Weather Service river expert based in Slidell, “and now we are getting more and more out of the Ohio.”

Rainstorms have been tracking across the northern United States and dropping large amounts of water. In the past week, the heavier rains have moved east to the Ohio Basin. All that rain must flow past Vicksburg to the Gulf of Mexico.

“This means more cropland will be under water,” said Charlie Little of the Vicksburg District Corps of Engineers.

Last week Terry Rector, Warren County agricultural extension agent, estimated the 42.5-foot crest would inundate 8,000 to 10,000 acres.

“It’s not a very big change from 42.5 feet to 43 feet,” he said.

“We’re going to lose about 400 acres of cotton,” said Billy Aden of Aden Farms. “That’s in the river area.”

But, Aden said, that’s not the only area he and other area farmers have to worry about.

“I’m probably going to lose a couple of hundred acres of soybeans in the sump area,” he said.

The sump area of the Mississippi Delta is that area in the lower Delta just north of the Steele Bayou and Sunflower River Control Structures. The area is enclosed by the Mainline Mississippi River and Yazoo River Levees. When the two drainage structures are closed, internal drainage backs up.

Aden said he probably won’t experience a complete loss of crops this year because he will be able to plant soybeans once his cotton land drains and replant his soybeans.

“I’m really surprised they didn’t (predict) 44 feet or 45 feet,” Aden said.

Spring rises are an annual event, usually triggered by snowmelt, with crests passing in March or April before crops are planted. Later rises ruin fields where crops are already growing.

The additional water really won’t affect any more people, said L.W. Callaway III, director of the Warren County Emergency Management Office. He said several county roads will have to be closed. To be included are Long Lake and Chickasaw roads near Vicksburg and Ziegler and Laney Camp roads near Lake Chotard.