‘Historic’ flooding swamps southern USA


'Historic' flooding swamps southern USA

  • “We do not anticipate this situation to end anytime soon.”
  • More wet weather is on the way: Rain showers will develop Monday night over the Mississippi River Valley.
  • In Tennessee, February’s rains have been “400 percent of normal.”

JACKSON, Miss. – Weeks of heavy rain have inundated a large portion of the southern U.S., bringing near-record flooding to Mississippi and Tennessee. 

In Jackson, Mississippi, hundreds of residents either watched their homes flood over the weekend or worried their residence would soon be drenched as the Pearl River crested Monday at 36.8 feet, its third-highest level ever recorded.

Calling the Jackson floods “historic” and “unprecedented,” Mississippi Gov. Tate Reeves said in a Sunday press conference that “we do not anticipate this situation to end anytime soon. It will be days before we are out of the woods and the waters recede.”

Reeves declared a state of emergency Saturday because of the floods.

February has seen “a constant stream of wet storms rolling across the Deep South,” said AccuWeather meteorologist Paul Walker, who called it a “crazy month” for the amount of rain that’s fallen across the region.

More wet weather is on the way: Rain showers will develop Monday night over the Mississippi River Valley, further saturating an already soggy South, the Weather Channel said.

Kathy Covington, center, watches the powerful floodwaters of the Pearl River rush through her Florence, Miss., yard on Feb. 16, 2020.

The National Weather Service said that this entire area is quite soaked and any additional rainfall may lead to more runoff issues and additional flooding.

Residents began filling sandbags and preparing their homes, businesses and churches for the flooding earlier last week after multiple days of heavy rain, AccuWeather said.

Jackson resident Mark Wakefield knows what it takes to rebuild after flooding: His in-laws’ home in Jackson has flooded four times before. The worst was 1979 when the house was 8 feet underwater. The home has flooded again, he said, and this time they might not come back.


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