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Over 200,000 acres of row crop land flooded across six counties.

Brad Robb, Staff Writer

May 1, 2019

16 Slides

Over 512,000 acres of land are covered with floodwater in Issaquena, Yazoo, Sharkey, Warren, Humphreys, and Washington counties in Mississippi. Over 200,000 of those acres should have young corn or soybean plants emerging through the nutrient-rich south Delta soils, providing a visual start of the 2019 farming season. Unfortunately, many residents, including hundreds of farmers, are more concerned with protecting what they have worked so hard to build over their lifetime — their homes, businesses, and their families.

The history of flooding along the winding Mississippi River dates back to 1927 when rising waters caused levee after levee to breach. Water covered over 23,000 square miles of land - at places as deep as 30 feet. The latest flooding in the south Delta should not have happened. Farmers would be planting right now if pumps were in place to transfer water over the levee when gates at the Steele Bayou Control Structure must be closed due to the Mississippi River's higher water level. Instead, ring sandbag levees circle house after house and floodwaters have basically formed a huge lake. 

Images from those counties impacted by the backwater illustrate the widespread damage. 

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