Vicksburg city officials Tuesday began putting their plans in place for expected flooding from the Mississippi, including a system to notify people in the Kings community and Ford Subdivision west of the Kansas City Southern Railroad tracks to evacuate ahead of the flood.

Also, the city put a schedule in place to move the inventory of the Yazoo & Mississippi Valley Depot to higher ground beginning this morning.

The Mississippi River is predicted to crest at 54 feet in Vicksburg Jan. 16, three feet below the record 57.1 feet set in the spring 2011 flood.

“I was not here as mayor for 2011, and I believe this crest will be between 2011 and 2008. We’re going to treat this like 2011,” Mayor George Flaggs Jr. said.

Flaggs appointed a High Water Response Team of city and county officials co-chaired by Fire Chief Charles Atkins and Police Chief Walter Armstrong and including Warren County Emergency Management Director John Elfer to coordinate the city’s response to the flood and to provide information on the city’s response. Vicksburg Convention and Visitors director Bill Seratt, one of the committee members, was named the city’s media contact.

Flaggs said the committee will meet daily at 2 p.m. beginning Jan. 11, five days before the river is supposed to crest. The mayor also said he wanted any pending vacation time for city employees cancelled from Jan. 11 to 16.

“I think it’s so important every employee to be available that week, because we don’t know what’s going to happen,” he said.

Under the city’s plans, Vicksburg police officers will begin going door-to-door today notifying an estimated 100 Kings and Ford residents west of the track to begin making preparations to leave their homes before the flood waters arrive.

The area expected to be affected by the flooding runs north from Haining Road along the west side of North Washington to its intersection with U.S. 61, Community Development Director Victor Gray-Lewis said.

Elfer said some areas of Kings and Ford could begin flooding as early as Monday, adding when the river reaches 44 feet on Vicksburg’s gauge, “Ford and Kings at Pittman Road and Mardin Road will be under water.”

Grey-Lewis said homes east of the railroad tracks are not expected to be affected unless the crest increases.

He said some industrial areas in the southern part of the city west of U.S. 61 South from Willow Drive south will also be affected by flooding.

Besides Kings and Ford and the southern end of the city, once river reaches 54 feet, the intersection of Levee Street, First East and North Washington streets will flood, and so will the depot.

The 2011 flood dumped four feet of water into the building, which became a national symbol for the flood in Vicksburg and the backdrop for media coverage during the disaster.

Seratt said work is underway to begin moving furniture files and equipment for Vicksburg Main Street and the Convention and Visitors Bureau.

“We’re packing up and we’ll begin moving in the morning,” he said Tuesday. He said the Main Street and the VCVB offices will be relocated at the City Hall Annex.

Old Depot Museum owner Lamar Roberts said the museum’s exhibits will either be moved to the building’s second floor or put in storage until after the flood. He said the museum will close Thursday afternoon until further notice.

“I’m afraid it could be 6 to 8 months before they get the building clean and we can move back in,” he said.

While some city offices prepared to move, city street department workers began closing off the floodwall at City Front on Levee Street Tuesday.

“We will be closing off the floodwall and pulling up the railroad tracks by the depot,” Public works Director Garnet Van Norman said. “We should be completed by Monday.”

Heavy rains in the northern part of the upper Mississippi Basin are the cause of the rising water, which is beginning to already cover some low-lying areas near along the river. County, city and state wildlife official and representatives of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers met Monday to discuss preparations to handle the flooding.