YAZOO CITY, MS (Mississippi News Now) -
Residents of the Mississippi Delta around Yazoo City packed the First Baptist Church of Yazoo City Tuesday afternoon for a briefing from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers about rising flood waters.
First Lady Marsha Barbour, whose vacation home at Wolf Lake will likely flood, spoke to the crowd in the First Baptist Church at Yazoo City.
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers briefed residents of the area about what to expect with an all time record flood coming down the Mississippi River at least a foot higher than the record flood of 1927 at Vicksburg.
"Yesterday (Monday) when the forecast came out that it would be 57.5 (feet), that is 1.3 feet higher than it was in 1927," said Robert Simrall, Chief of Water Control.
Simrall said later what will happen at Wolf Lake, an old Oxbow Lake of the Yazoo River some 7 miles northwest of Yazoo City where there are a lot of vacation homes, including one belonging to Governor Haley Barbour.
"The water levels around this area will be 107, around Wolf Lake there is a lot of residences over there on the lake, they will be impacted," Simrall said. "There is several thousand acres of farm land that is going to be impacted at level 107."
Backwater will be at least 6.5 feet higher than it was in 2008, which will put water in Tim Richards' home on Wolf Lake.
"We have to move out," Richards said. "We will basically probably be out six weeks."
Governor Haley Barbour's has had sandbags delivered to his house in an effort to save it from the rising waters.
Copyright 2011 WLBT. All rights reserved.
WLBT 3 - Fox 40
