Days after Leflore County dealt with unprecedented June flooding caused by a torrent of rainfall and, in some places, a dam breach in Carroll County, residents are working to salvage any items that remain intact from their homes.
Meanwhile, the Board of Supervisors voted Monday to ask Gov. Tate Reeves to declare Leflore County a disaster due to last week’s flooding.
The designation would open the way for those affected by the high water to get state and federal assistance.
“All the water is gone,” Robert Collins, District 5 supervisor, said Monday morning. “Everything is dry.”
About 11 inches of rain fell in the Greenwood area last week, causing widespread flash flooding.
On Thursday night, a breach at Gee’s Lake in Carroll County sent a barrage of water from the hill county into the flatland of the Delta, swamping the Glendale subdivision and other nearby residential areas.
Collins said Leflore officials are hoping to meet with Carroll County officials later this week to address the breach at Gee Lake.
“If we don’t get it fixed, then all the rain water is going to come straight down on us if that dam is not there,” he said.
During the flooding. most of the Lakeview subdivision also lost power. Collins said that he didn’t expect electricity to be fully restored there until Tuesday morning.
With the streets clear of water, residents took advantage of returning to their homes to survey the damage.
Water stains seen on the door inside Jackie Davis’ home on Mabyline Street indicate how high the water crept during last week’s flash flooding. (Photo by Andy Lo)
Along Mabyline Street in east Greenwood, residents could be seen towing away large pieces of household items, such as chairs, flooring and mattresses, and tossing them in piles in front of their homes.
Jackie Davis, who lives on Mabyline, said she awakened around 6:45 a.m. Thursday to get ready for work and stepped into water that had seeped inside her home. She estimated that the water reached as high as 10 inches inside the house.
“I just remodeled, and now I have to do it all over again,” Davis said Monday afternoon as her sister, Delores Stanciel, was outside sweeping the driveway.
Davis, who is now staying with her sister, said it probably won’t be until six months from now that she’ll be able to move back to her home.
Much of the interior — including furniture, walls and flooring — have been damaged, and mold is beginning to develop, she said. Water stains were left on the walls of the home, indicating how high the water had reached.
Even her clothes stored in her closet got wet, and Davis said she’s not sure if those items are salvageable.
She said that she did not have flood insurance because the area along Mabyline Street was no longer considered a flood zone.
Residents in Glendale subdivision, which was the site of some of the worst flooding, were also back at their homes to survey the damage while trying to reclaim what little of their household items were salvageable.
Kimberly Jones sat outside of her home on Murphree Drive. She was joined by other members of her family, including her son, Desmond Jones, who lives down the street, and her mother, Helen Jones, who lives on Glendale Circle.
Kimberly, who has been a resident of the subdivision for 22 years, said last week’s events were the worst flooding she has experienced.
She and her family were evacuated from the home around 3 a.m. Friday morning by a group of volunteers operating boats.
Now back at her house Monday, Kimberly said the floors and walls are damaged, as well as household items.
“It’s a disaster, the worst I’ve ever seen,” said Desmond. Six inches to a foot flooded the inside of his mother’s house, Desmond said.
Desmond Jones removes sandbags that were placed in front of his mother’s house on Murphree Drive, in the Glendale subdivision. (Photo by Andy Lo)
“Today, we woke up, it was dry, like it never happened,” Kimberly said on a humid and muggy Monday afternoon.
A Red Cross team was out in the neighborhood earlier, taking the names of residents, taking pictures of the damage and providing bottled water, Kimberly said.
Early Friday morning, Desmond, along with other neighborhood residents and first responders, worked to evacuate the neighborhood.
He and other volunteers waded through the waist-deep water, manually pushing boats to evacuate residents out of flooded homes, he recalled.
They had worked, nearly nonstop, from 2 a.m. until about 3 p.m. Friday, Desmond said.
As on Mabyline Street, Glendale is no longer considered a flood zone, meaning flood insurance is no longer required, said Kimberly, who opted out of the flood insurance coverage.
Roberta Lee, a resident of Virden Street in Glendale for nearly 25 years, recalled that she had received a letter from the Federal Emergency Management Agency last year that said that flood insurance was no longer necessary.
Because of that, Lee said she also opted out of flood insurance coverage this year. She had previously had the coverage.
Complete damage to her home has caused Lee to stay at a hotel. Following last week’s flooding, Lee said she intends to get back on flood insurance coverage later this week.
Darrell Edwards wore a long-sleeved neon-orange shirt and bucket hat to protect himself from the beaming sun while using a rake to clear the front yard of his home on Glendale Circle of debris.
Edwards said he and his wife evacuated their home early Friday and spent the night at a hotel from Friday to Saturday.
They are now lodging at a house his wife owns on Kay White Circle, Edwards said.
Darrell Edwards, a resident of Glendale Circle in the Glendale subdivision, clears up debris from the front yard of his home. (Photo by Andy Lo)
Neither the house on Glendale Circle nor the one on Kay White Circle received water damage inside, Edwards said.
Like other residents, he said last week’s flooding was the worst he has experienced.
More than 200 homes throughout Leflore County have reported flood damage. Fred Randle, director of emergency management for Leflore County, said that 30 households had been assessed for damage as of Monday afternoon. He said the damage assessments will continue Tuesday.
Nobody has taken advantage of free shelter offered at the Leflore County Civic Center or at one of the United Methodist churches, Randle said.
Anyone with flood damage in the county is asked to report it to Randle by calling 662-453-1428.
- Contact Gerard Edic at 581-7239 or gedic@gwcommonwealth.com.
