A flock of great egrets takes flight over the flood waters along Long Lake Road Wednesday.(Melanie Duncan Thortis The Vicksburg Post)

[3/6/03]As Warren County road crews barricaded roads covered in flood waters Wednesday, forecasters lowered their prediction for a crest for the river at Vicksburg.

Bob Stucky, a forecaster with the Lower Mississippi River Forecast Center in Slidell, said Wednesday afternoon it did not appear there was nearly as much rainfall in the Mississippi River basin as forecasters thought when they issued the prediction of a 40-foot crest stage for the Mississippi at Vicksburg on Sunday. On Wednesday, they lowered the forecast to 39 feet and moved it up to Saturday.

“It looks like it will be about a foot lower,” he said.

The stage at Vicksburg this morning was 38.6 feet. Flood stage at Vicksburg is 43 feet.

The river’s fall should take five to seven days, Stucky said.

At the lower stage, backwater from the Mississippi will likely affect the Long Lake area northwest of downtown Vicksburg.

The county closed Lake Shore Road in the Long Lake Community Wednesday, keeping drivers from using the road near the lake.

“We put the signs up for people’s safety,” District 2 Supervisor Michael Mayfield said. “We want to let people know the water is close to the road and, in this case, over the road.”

Warren County Road Manager Rhea Fuller said the county will monitor the river’s rise closely and determine if any additional roads need to be closed.

“We will likely have to close Long Lake Road off as you come off of Haining Road,” he said. “Everything is ready to go, it won’t take but a second to get the roads that need to be closed, closed.”

Zigler Road on the bank of Lake Chotard in northwest Warren County was also closed to through traffic, said L.W. Callaway, executive director of the Warren County Emergency Management Office.

“Right now there is no risk to any structure from this rise,” he said, adding that water is beginning to rise around the foundation footings of some houses on Long Lake and Lake Chotard and in the Chickasaw Community. “But those are all raised structures.”