City and county officials are continuing to update information related to the expected floodwaters from the Mississippi River anticipated to arrive in the area over the course of the next week. Warren County Emergency Management Agency Director John Elfer said Thursday the waters should reach 48 feet by Sunday, April 20.

“Highway 465 will close early next week,” Elfer said. “We have two pumps and barriers for the city of Vicksburg and the (flood) wall has been closed at Grove Street and Levee Street. We expect about a week-and-a-half (from April 20), we’ll be back down to about 40 feet. So by the first of May.”

As of Thursday afternoon, Elfer said the river was just above 38 feet.

Thursday morning, City of Vicksburg Public Works Director Dane Lovell said he expects the waters to begin impacting the area over the weekend.

“We’re ahead of it just a little bit,” Lovell said. “It’s slowing down, but we’re still looking at some rain up north, so it looks like this weekend. We’ve gotten five gates closed and ready. Again, we’re ahead of the game, because it was coming so fast, if it hadn’t slowed down, it would have been on top of us.”

Lovell said crews will begin working on the Highway 61 South levee Monday morning.

“We’re going to be real close to Levee Street with that 48 (feet),” Lovell added. “So, we may have to start digging it out. It just depends on how the forecast moves forward.”

Lovell said it is also possible some gas meters will be affected prior to the waters reaching peak height.

“Our flood stage is at 43 (feet), and some of them will be impacted at 44 (feet), but we’ll start pulling some gas meters up in the Kings community at 44. Some houses are still in there.”

Earlier in the week, Elfer said a number of areas in both the county and city are always impacted by floodwaters, including the Kings subdivision. Other areas include Highway 465 from Highway 61 to Eagle Lake, Williams Street, the Ford subdivision, Jackson Lane and Cedars Road, among others.

Wednesday, officials with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) Vicksburg District announced the closure, and subsequent re-opening, of the gate at Steele Bayou, saying decisions are being made based on continually changing forecasts.

“In response to rising water levels on the Mississippi River, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) Vicksburg District closed the gates of the Steele Bayou Control Structure Tuesday,” USACE officials said. “Due to changing conditions on the Mississippi River and the river slowing its rise, the gates at Steele Bayou Drainage Structure have been reopened today, April 9th, to allow more water to flow out of the lower Yazoo basin. It is anticipated that the gates will close again; however, we are taking this welcome opportunity to get as much water out of the basin as possible.”

On Thursday, USACE officials told The Post the gates were once again closed Thursday morning. With rapidly changing conditions, USACE said updates are being pushed out through social media, including its Facebook page.