Greenwood-area officials are breathing a sigh of relief after significant additional rainfall failed to materialize following Thursday morning’s deluge.
“Everything went good, and all the water went down,” said Fred Randle, director of the Greenwood-Leflore Emergency Management Agency.
Floodwaters, which had covered roadways in Greenwood and several parts of Leflore County Thursday morning, were largely gone by that afternoon. Although a thunderstorm hit the area in the early evening, it moved out fairly quickly and skies began to clear.
Randle said this morning that he hasn’t heard of people being forced to leave their homes on account of high water.
A resident of Browning Road, who declined to be identified, said the floodwaters that entered her home came up fast between the hours of 3 a.m. and 6 a.m. Heavy storms dumped at least five inches of rain on the area before daybreak.
The woman estimated the water reached a height of 7 inches inside parts of her home before receding.
“It stayed in three or four hours,” she said.
County crews delivered sandbags to the woman shortly after the water began to rise, she said.
Walter Ware, another Browning Road resident whose home was threatened by floodwaters, spent a good bit of his morning ferrying people back and forth along the road.
“I carried two different groups of people through here,” he said.
Ware said he rescued a woman and her son when their car got stuck in high water.
In Greenwood, high water came into Indywood Personal Care Home on Erie Street, according to Manager Sharon Harvey.
“It flooded five rooms on the front hall and 12 special-care rooms along with the special- care lobby and dining room,” she said.
After moving the residents away from the affected areas, staff used wet vacs to clean up the water.
“We were through by lunchtime,” Harvey said.
In Itta Bena, Mayor Thelma Collins said several homes were threatened by rising water. However, only two homes, one on Al Thomas Circle and the other on Jefferies Street, actually had water get inside.
Randle said residents who had water get inside their houses are encouraged to call the Emergency Management office at 453-1428 to get a damage assessment done.
He said agents would come out and inspect for damage at no charge.
Collins said she believes her prayers were answered.
“We’re very thankful,” she said.
The area should dry out even further in coming days. The forecast calls for mostly sunny skies with highs in the upper 60s to mid 70s for the next several days. The next significant chance of precipitation does not come until Wednesday night.
• Contact Bob Darden at 581-7239 or bdarden@gwcommonwealth.com.
The original version of this article had an incorrect telephone number for the Greenwood-Leflore Emergency Management Agency.
