Residents of Greenwood and Leflore County have been spared the kind of flooding that’s caused many in the Jackson area to evacuate their homes.
According to Susan Bailey, director of Greenwood’s Public Works Department, and Fred Randle, director of emergency management for Leflore County, there have been no reports of flooded homes in either the city or county.
Bailey said employees of the Street Department were monitoring the rainfall situation on Tuesday to check for any possible flooding.
Eddie Curry, director of the city’s wastewater division, said all of the floodgates were closed, meaning that residents may see water in their streets drain a little more slowly than usual.
“It’s because the storm water pumps are now in operation,” he said. “We’re totally depending on the pumping stations to do the job. Everything is going pretty good so far as long as we don’t have one that goes out on us.”
Curry also brought up the Yazoo River’s level at Greenwood.
Over the weekend, the river exceeded the flood stage of 35 feet, rising to 35.45 feet by Saturday evening before dropping.
As of Tuesday evening the river’s level was 34.6 feet, according to the National Weather Service, which also predicts the river’s level will drop farther.
From Jan. 1 through Tuesday afternoon, the Greenwood area received 15.6 inches of rain, according to the Jackson bureau of the National Weather Service. As of Tuesday afternoon, 7.93 inches of rain had fallen this month.
The Jackson bureau of the National Weather Service issued a limited threat of flash flooding for Leflore County Tuesday; an elevated threat was applied to a small southern portion of Leflore County.
The chance of rain Wednesday is 20% in the morning and 80% in the evening.
The chance of rain Thursday is also 80% throughout the day, according to the National Weather Service.
By Thursday night the skies are expected to clear.
•Contact Gerard Edic at 581-7239 or gedic@gwcommonwealth.com.
