Leflore County officials were getting worried Thursday evening about a resurgence of flooding after a dam in Carroll County had breached.
Leflore County District 5 Supervisor Robert Collins said that around 6 p.m. the water began to rise in the Bowie Lane and Glendale areas and county workers had started sandbagging.
“We got major problems out here,” Collins said.
Ken Strachan, the Carroll County emergency management director, said that the spillway had breached at Gee Lake and that the National Resource and Conservation Service, after examining the watershed lake earlier Thursday, had said that a full breach was possible by Friday.
Gee Lake is located south of U.S. 82, near County Road 142. Water escaping from it, according to Strachan, would flow toward Pelucia Creek. The creek comes out of the Carroll County hills and travels southwest through Leflore County before emptying into the Yazoo River in the Rising Sun area.
The latest threat of rising water comes after torrential rains prompted widespread flash flooding Thursday that put water in about 40 homes in and around Greenwood.
Emergency management officials said the deluge also flooded 15 homes in Itta Bena and another dozen in parts of Carroll County.
The flooding prompted local governments in both counties to declare a state of emergency, which allows public workers to go onto private property to try to alleviate the high water. It also begins the process to seek state and federal assistance for those most impacted by the flooding.
According to the National Weather Service in Jackson, from 11 p.m. Wednesday until Thursday afternoon, 8.39 inches of rain were recorded at the Greenwood- Leflore Airport gauge. Since Monday, nearly 11 inches have fallen.
By late Thursday afternoon, the water had receded from most residential areas, according to Greenwood Mayor Carolyn McAdams, except in the neighborhood around Mabyline Street and the Terrace Gardens area.
Leflore County remained under a flood warning until at least 8:30 a.m. Friday.
- Contact Tim Kalich at 581-7243 or tkalich@gwcommonwealth.com.
