A rising Mississippi River is causing serious problems for DeSoto Lake Road residents who live on the river side of the levee in Rena Lara.
Johnny Tarzi, director of the Coahoma County Emergency Management Agency, provided an update during Monday's board of supervisors meeting of how DeSoto Lake Road recently was covered by water, as well as a report on other issues from the flooding that struck low-lying parts of Clarksdale and Coahoma County on Feb. 22-25.
Tarzi began his report by informing the supervisors there were 17 roads in Clarksdale and Coahoma County that had or still have water on them. Some of the roads were closed during the Feb. 22-25 flooding, but he did say, as far as he knows, they are now all open.
“We turned that all into MEMA (Mississippi Emergency Management Agency),” he said. “We have five or six houses with water that we turned in. They’ll come and do a damage assessment in the next week, week and a half.”
MEMA will then report their damage assessment to the Federal Emergency Management Agency. Tarzi said he hopes there is enough damage in Coahoma, Tallahatchie and Quitman counties to get a presidential declaration saying this was a disaster area.
As far as DeSoto Lake Road, Tarzi said the road began to be covered Sunday. He said the current level of the Mississippi River was at 49.9 feet Monday and he expects it to hit 50 feet.
As of Tuesday evening, the river was at 49.59 feet at Helena, Ark. Flood stage is 44 feet. And that water level is expected to remain for the next seven to 10 days, Tarzi said.
He said while it is not in his plans to make people evacuate, there could be a problem if the river rises above 50 feet.
“Those people can get out, but they’re going to have to tread water,” he told supervisors, adding, “the levee board would close the gates off at a certain level.”
