A flying tour of the Mississippi River gave Senators Roger Wicker and Thad Cochran a look at how far the flood waters have reached.
"You get a sense of the real devastating disaster that we have sustained. It is going to be a long time before we fully recover," said Senator Cochran.
The river was at 56.7 feet at Vicksburg Saturday which means it is already starting to fall from the crest of 57.1 feet recorded Thursday.
Senator Wicker praised the Corps of Engineers for the strong levee system holding the flood waters back.
"This is based on science. This is based on experience. We have the top professionals in the world protecting the people of the Mississippi Valley, the people of Mississippi," said Senator Wicker.
The flooding dumped sediment that will need to be dredged from ports and harbors.
"In a situation like this where jobs are at stake we may need to go in and appropriate some more money to get people back to work and get his thing going as it should," said Wicker.
That decision will be made after teams can assess damage once the flood waters recede and that is several weeks away.
"Typically we're not able to get down until the water is below 40 foot on the Vicksburg gage to really get a feel for the extent of the damage," said Colonel Jeff Eckstein with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.
According to Senator Wicker 1.8 million acres have been flooded. 4,800 people have been displaced in Mississippi, over 2,100 of those are from Vicksburg and Warren County.
"We're going to not let this get us down. We're going to overcome it," said Senator Cochran.
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