The Army Corp of Engineers began releasing water from Okatibee Lake in Lauderdale County Monday morning at a rate of 1097 cubic feet of water per second and will continue releasing water into Wednesday.
Emergency Management Director Eddie Ivy said that Clarke County should not experience any problems from that release since there was enough of a time gap between the flooding over the weekend and Monday when the water began receding. “Once that water gets to the Chickasawhay, we will not experience any additional flooding or problems.”
Archusa Water Park is also releasing water and there is no anticipated back up of water that would cause flooding of nearby homes.
The flood waters began to recede and water levels significantly dropped as of Monday morning after the weekend flooding of the Chickasawhay River in Enterprise, Quitman and Shubuta.
Heavy rainfall for two days which averaged over 12 inches in parts of the county caused flooding from the river, creeks and streams. Many roads were closed from the rising waters and there were two vehicle rescues after the vehicles swept off the road in strong currents when the driver attempted to drive across flooded roads.
Harmony volunteer fire department members had to assist a driver on County Road 120 after he attempted to drive his SUV through the flooded area Saturday. The other volunteer rescue was on County Road 379 and was assisted by Enterprise volunteer members.
Clarke County Emergency Management and Mississippi Emergency Management held a press conference Friday afternoon with the board of supervisors, law enforcement, county road department and area mayors to discuss the impeding problems once the river got out.
Enterprise crested Sunday afternoon at 34.54 feet and Shubuta is expected to crest by Wednesday at 35.5 feet.
There were over 30 roads – some which had only a few hours of water across road and some closed for several days.
During Friday’s press conference, the national weather service had also predicted an additional 3 – 5 inches of rain on Saturday with severe weather on Sunday, but Clarke County dodged that bullet and the weather moved towards the northern counties in the state.
Over 6,000 sandbags were brought in on Friday and distributed to area fire departments where residents who lived in flood zones and low lying areas were able to use to keep rising water out of their homes.
Most roads will be back open by middle of this week.
