River barges loose again; water on 465

The Mississippi will rise a foot higher and the flooding will continue longer, today’s measurements by the National Weather Service indicate.

A crest of 49 feet on April 13 comes as grim news to those who have been watching the water lap at roadsides and foundations. At the higher reading, more roads, homes and farmland will go under.

The new prediction is only 2.6 feet below 1973 flooding, which was the worst since 1927.

“This all came up overnight,” said Latasha Bright looking over a partially submerged Ford Road, as she and her three children evacuated their home this morning.

Bright’s yard is on the southern end of Ford Road, where water was edging across the pavement. She expected her yard to be fully covered by this evening.

“That’s why I told the kids this morning, ‘Start packing, we got to go,” she said. “By the time I get off work tonight, it will be over my whole yard.”

Other than the neighborhoods in northwest Vicksburg, today’s water level and the higher forecast compound some problems and create others.

Mississippi 465 will likely be topped by floodwater today. That means residents in the Eagle Lake area will not be able to use it to reach U.S. 61.

A third loose barge incident on the river since last week created a scare and more work for roundup crews Thursday afternoon.

Work at a major industry, LeTourneau, where offshore oil rigs are built, is threatened.

Thursday’s crest forecast was 48 feet on Tuesday. In addition to adding a foot, the new forecast says the crest won’t come until five days later, April 13.

Stages were falling upstream as close as Helena, Ark., but rainfall Thursday and today are expected to compound the situation in the Vicksburg area.

Today’s 7 a.m. reading was 46.5 feet on the Vicksburg gauge, a rise of 0.4 feet in 24 hours to exactly 3.5 feet above flood stage.

Bright said she is more fortunate than some of her neighbors in that her house is stilted, and will most likely not take on any water. Just down the road, however, her neighbor’s homes were already close to becoming inundated.

“It’s just sad,” said Bright, whose mother lives across the street and sister lives just down the road. “There will probably be about 3 feet of water where we’re standing right now before this is over.”

Bright and her children will be staying at a friend’s home on National Street, but others from Ford subdivison were in a shelter. Eight people remained at Calvary Baptist Church this morning, where the Red Cross has set up a temporary shelter, assisted by the Salvation Army. Two of the original 10 who took refuge there have moved in with a family member.

Mississippi 465, known as Eagle Lake Road to those who drive it daily, is nearly under. Cynde Mott, who travels to Vicksburg to teach at Hinds Community College, said just one lane of the road was open at places this morning. She was planning on taking a longer route and use a road atop a levee to reach her home tonight.

“It’s going to add about an hour to my commute each day,” she said.

Warren County Sheriff Martin Pace said Mississippi 465 would likely be officially closed today. The road’s westbound lane is under water for roughly 100 feet about 3 miles west of the Steele Bayou Control Structure. There are nearly 600 homes in the Eagle Lake area, according to data provided by the Eagle Lake Water District. The lakeside homes are protected by a levee, but Mott said she was concerned about all the traffic that is going to be forced to use a road on the levee if Mississippi 465 is closed.

“There’s a lot of traffic in the morning and at night between people who work in Vicksburg and the school busses,” she said, “and now we’re all going to be driving up on this little, biddy levee?”

LeTourneau Road south of Vicksburg remained open today, but rising waters are continually threatening the only route to LeTourneau Industries Vicksburg Shipyard, which employs 1,450 people. The road was flooded in 1997, and shortly after was rebuilt about 1.5 feet higher than its previous height.

Ronnie Neihaus, shipyard marine service manager, said the road will be inundated when the river stage reaches about 48 feet.

Ergon Marine pilots kept busy Thursday afternoon rounding up 17 barges that broke loose from a northbound tow about 14 miles north of Vicksburg. One of the barges sank while the rest were successfully corralled, said Ergon Fleet Manager Albert Smith.

Smith said Ergon got the call at about 11:50 a.m., and had the situation under control by 1:30 p.m. Towboat Martha Ingram, owned by Nashville-based Ingram Barge Company, was pushing 31 barges toward the Ohio River from New Orleans when 17 — 11 empty and 6 loaded with manganese ore — broke up north of Vicksburg.

“We don’t know how it happened, there’s an investigation under way,” said Dan Mecklenborg, Ingram senior vice president. “We have been dealing with high waters in all our Mississippi River operations, and Vicksburg is an area we always try to be extremely careful in.”

The barge that sank in the incident was loaded, said Smith, and is the third barge to sink in three accidents since March 26. None of the sunken barges has been identified as a hazard to river navigation.

The Coast Guard has imposed navigation restrictions that include banning tows from attempting to line up and shoot the gap between piers of the U.S. 80 bridge at night. Current in the area is swirling and unpredictable.