[5/8/03]Rain over the upstream reaches of the Mississippi River drainage area will cause high water on the Mississippi River in the coming weeks, but no flooding is expected.

The Mississippi River topped out at 37.4 feet on the Vicksburg gauge on March 4 on its first spring rise. The new crest predicted for May 22 will be at 41 feet on the local gauge. Flood stage at Vicksburg is 43 feet.

In Vicksburg, a total of 8.31 inches of rain was measured on April 6. That had no effect on the river here, but the series of storms associated with that day started the process that will cause a second rise, said Angelo Dalessandro, a river forecaster at the Lower Mississippi River Forecast Center in Slidell, La.

Over the past month, he said, storms moved eastward over much of the upper reaches of the Mississippi’s drainage basin, including the Upper Mississippi, Ohio, Missouri and Tennessee rivers. As a result, there will be high water on the main stem of the Mississippi.

Dalessandro said the forecast crest is based on water already on the ground and the rain forecasts through Saturday.

“If there are more heavy rains, the crest could exceed that,” Dalessandro said.

Higher crests normally come in February and March and the basin is normally safe by the middle of May.

When the local gauge reaches 36.5 feet, water begins moving into the area around Long Lake and traffic begins to have trouble reaching the Kings Point Ferry by at least one route. By 39.5 feet, the road just past the Long Lake community goes under. By 40.5 feet, most of the Long Lake community, except the main road, is covered with water.

The Chickasaw Subdivision does not begin to have trouble until the local gauge reaches 41.2 feet.

This year is the 30th anniversary of the Flood of 1973, which rivaled the Flood of 1927 in devastation in Arkansas, Louisiana and Mississippi.