[05/25/03] The Mississippi River has started to fall at Arkansas City, was steady in Greenville but still rising in Vicksburg today.

Experts expect the local stage, at 42.7 feet today, to creep up another inch or two before starting to fall.

The late rise has not displaced any families, but is destroying young crops or delaying planting in lower areas of Warren and adjacent river counties. Some rural roads are also underwater.

Flood stage at Vicksburg is 43 feet and a crest, according to the National Weather Service, will come Wednesday at 42.8 feet. The river is expected to drop to 42.7 feet on Thursday and 42.3 feet by Saturday.

After that, the pace of the fall should increase.

Spring flooding is normal due to snowmelt and rains upstream. The water now flowing past Vicksburg is the result of April rains across the nation’s midsection and releases from impoundments.

In the Warren County area, some farmland north and south of the city goes underwater as a result of direct overflows from the Mississippi. Another problem, however, is land inside the Yazoo Ring Levee that was built to keep water off the Lower Delta.

Normally, creeks and bayous drain rainwater from that land, but gates at Corps of Engineers Control Structures are closed when “river side” levels approach “land side” levels and water begins ponding inside the levee.

Steele Bayou gates, visible from Mississippi 465 near Eagle Lake, are closed now and can’t be reopened until the outside level, controlled by the Mississippi and Yazoo, falls below the inside level, controlled by seepage and rain.

The most recent Corps estimate is that about 90,000 cleared acres are affected by flooding at today’s stage.