Tropical storm Cindy is expected to produce heavy rain in Vicksburg and Warren County Wednesday night through the weekend after it makes landfall in Texas and Louisiana and tracks toward Arkansas.

The storm was expected to produce more than an inch of rain locally throughout Wednesday. More rain is expected throughout Thursday and another 1 to 2 inches is expected Friday.

“It actually doesn’t look bad [Thursday] for Vicksburg,” National Weather Service Jackson meteorologist Dan Byrd said. “As the low passes to the north of Vicksburg on Friday, they could see one to two inches of rain then, but it will be just a low pressure system. It will be well dissipated by the time.”

Vicksburg and Warren County currently have a limited threat of high winds, as the storm begins to break-up upon landfall. The coast of Mississippi is expected to be the hardest hit area of the state.

“All of the moisture is on the east side of that storm,” Vicksburg Warren County Emergency Management Director John Elfer said. “The storm is going up through Louisiana and the east side is going to be the wet side and that is the side we’re on. That will affect central and southern Mississippi in the next several days.”

Elfer said that parts of Vicksburg should prepare for localized flooding as the storm adds more rain to the already saturated ground.

“Don’t drive through water,” Elfer said. “Less than a foot of water can move your vehicle. We had numerous waterborne rescues back in April when we had the storm events that came through. The motto the weather service puts out is turn around, don’t drown. It is really sound advice that people need to heed.”

Vicksburg has already experienced 10.78 inches of rain in June as of Tuesday morning, and Elfer said the consistent rain makes trees falling and causing power outages more likely.

“It is quite likely that we’re going to have some trees toppled over,” Elfer said. “If we get any wind at all, then we are going to see trees fall due to the wet conditions. We’ve had a lot of rain here in a short amount of time. It has been a really wet spring and those are concerns that we always have.”

He recommends having an emergency preparedness kit ready that will enable you to survive for up to 72 hours without utilities.

For information on what to include in your kit, you can check the MEMA and FEMA website or call emergency management at 601-636-1544.

Entergy also recommends placing your freezer on its coldest setting and having frozen containers of water in your freezer to help keep it cool if the power goes out.

Vicksburg Warren School District spokesperson Christi Killroy said they are actively monitoring the storm and how it will impact summer school and camp and if any activities have to be cancelled they will send out notifications via social media and call outs.