CARY - Flooding, when this pristine land is nightmarishly transformed into a ravaging basin of anguish, is a harsh moment for the residents of these agriculture-dominated communities.
For more than six decades they have lived with the mental anxiety, in which even the slightest hint of rising waters on the Mississippi and Yazoo rivers renews a sense of hopeless angst.
Ruby L. Johnson knows all too well what the floodwaters can do to this South Delta community of her birth. She returned to Issaquena County in 1994 after a public school career in Chicago and Seattle. In that time, Johnson has been a strident advocate for getting flood relief for residents of these South Delta communities.
"It is more than the flood, because the kids cannot get to school, people are cut off from essential services," Johnson said, "and that should not be happening in this day and age.
"You always worry when it rains, because you know the flood is gonna come," she added.
A member of the South Delta Flood Control Committee, Johnson is dismayed at opposition by federal agencies over implementing a viable flood management plan for the surrounding South Delta communities.
"I have seen what can happen," she said. "This is the land my great grandparents worked. Now it is just enough to survive."
Meanwhile, there are many who are well familiar with the death and destruction of massive flooding, as evidenced by the flood of 1973, where more than 1 million acres became submerged and thousands were made homeless.
Even the news from the national weather report becomes an almost obsession for those who live in farming communities of economically depressed Issaquena County.
When there are rising waters on the Mississippi River in the Midwest from the spring thaw, it is only a matter of time when it will impact the Yazoo River Basin, they say.
These people are all too familiar with having to be rescued by boats, having their homes destroyed and being forced to constantly retool their lives through no fault of their own.
Many of those who live here lay much of the blame at the feet of the federal government - the Environmental Protection Agency and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service - and politically connected environmental groups.
They have good reason, because the Yazoo Backwater Project grew out of a 1941 federal act, which finally recognized the vulnerability of this South Delta area.
Many residents say the federal government has given them lip service and little else.
"When they say flood control, they really mean flood-damage control," says Laurence W. Carter, a Rolling Fork farmer. "We are not trying to dry up the South Delta but enhance the area, and give people a chance to make a living."
While there is a widely held community perception of lack of government benevolence, Mississippi Republican Sens. Trent Lott and Thad Cochran have actively supported the installation of pumps at the Steele Bayou floodgates, part of the Yazoo Backwater Project.
In fact, governing bodies up and down the Delta favor installing pumps at Steele Bayou. Yet the appropriation authorizing purchasing the pumps has been snarled in a political quagmire in Congress.
But the people who live here are even more perplexed why 2nd District Rep. Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., has not visited these flood-prone communities and listened to the people's harrowing stories.
"People need to be protected in an environmentally friendly way," said Clifton Porter, chairman of the South Delta Flood Control Committee. "We have lived through 60 years of this stuff.
"I cannot get (Thompson) down here, but he says he supports getting the pumps," he added. "We have to do something to get the congressman's attention. For some reason he is not supporting us in the way he should."
But a moment of truth is coming early next year when the final impact statement is submitted by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.
The Vicksburg District of the Corps of Engineers has vigorously supported using pumps, which would drop the flood level by 2 feet to 3 feet. Under the plan, about 62,500 acres would be purchased from private owners to create reforestation easements.
The EPA favors retaining the current floodgates, offering flood and crop insurance and offering buyouts to create 88,000 acres for reforestation. The EPA's plan is not endorsed by Delta governing bodies.
Last week, members of the South Delta Flood Control Committee and Delta Council took a group of local farmers, elected officials and two members of Cochran's staff on a tour of the Yazoo Backwater Project.
They listened intently to a progressive flood management plan, which will give South Delta residents a chance to return a sense of normality to their everyday lives.
These are hard-working people who just want to put food on the table, and not exist under the backdrop of raging flood waters. It's not too much to ask. But there are those in the politically connected crowd who oppose this human request.
"Somebody has a different agenda," Johnson said, "and that is so mind-boggling to us."
