Heavy rains that came through Sunday night created scattered flash flooding in Leflore County but apparently no major damage.
“We had to get out. We had problems west of Itta Bena with flooding,” said Jerry Smith, Leflore County road manager.
He said high water was reported around 5:30 p.m. Sunday in a residential community along U.S. 82, near Mississippi Valley State University. Water got into several homes in the area, Smith said.
“We worked on it for about an hour or two.”
In addition, he said, crews responded to clogged storm drains in the Glendale Subdivision, east of Greenwood.
Chad Entremont, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Jackson, said that 2.16 inches of rain were recorded at Greenwood-Leflore Airport.
Smith said he felt that more rain, as much as 3 inches, fell near Itta Bena and Morgan City.
Heavier rain was reported south of Leflore County. In neighboring Holmes County, 3 to 4 inches of rain were reported in Durant, while between 5 and 6 inches were recorded in Yazoo County, Entremont said.
Susan Bailey, director of the Greenwood Public Works Department, said that she had one supervisor out on Sunday checking for potential hot spots. “We did OK,” she reported.
Dorothy Ivory, assistant director of Greenwood-Leflore Emergency Management Agency, said no significant storm damage had been reported as of this morning.
Entremont said that some storm damage was reported in the east-central part of the state along the I-20 corridor.
Hail was reported near Hazlehurst, and a tornado was reported in Covington County, near the town of Hot Coffee, he said.
Cruger farmer Jim Thomas said the frequent rains are beginning to be a concern to farmers, eager to finish planting their corn crop for the year.
“We haven’t been able to get into the fields. We’ve had rain every three to five days,” he said.
“We finally got in the field last Wednesday and Thursday. We got rain Thursday night,” Thomas said.
The run of wet weather has left the fields soggy. With Sunday’s downpour, it will take three or four days for the fields to be dry enough for work to continue, assuming there is no more rain. However, the forecast calls for a 70 percent chance of showers and thunderstorms Tuesday night before the skies are expected to clear up for the rest of the week.
“They say you can plant corn in the last week of April,” Thomas said.
Last year, due to wet field conditions, Thomas finished planting corn around April 25.
Although he wasn’t able to plant as much corn as he intended, last year’s corn yields were very good, thanks to ideal growing conditions. Thomas isn’t certain that this year’s growing season will be similarly blessed.
“We need to plant all of our corn by the 25th and no later,” he said.
