Flood wall protects the Vicksburg waterfront

Mississippi River Flood - 2011

Vicksburg, the "hill city," is located on high bluffs above the river, so only a few streets along the waterfront were threatened by the flood and most of this area is protected by a concrete flood wall.  Land along the river both to the north and south of Vicksburg were subject to extensive flooding.

The section of flood wall  in the photo above is a temporary wall to prevent flood water from going around the northern end of the permanent flood wall. Pumps are handling leakage in the wall. The railroad tracks leading north out of Vicksburg had to be severed in order to install the wall. The train depot on the other side of the wall is flooded up to the first floor windows. (See yesterday's post.)

Levee street, looking west toward the river. This is another view of the temporary flood wall, which is perpendicular to the permanent flood wall. There are murals painted on the permanent wall, which can be seen in the distance

Here, the gate in the permanent concrete flood wall which runs parallel to the Yazoo diversion canal has been closed up with temporary timbers. The pipe on the right is the discharge of a large pump that is pumping leakage back over the wall.

Standing in front of the train depot, looking north beyond the end of the flood wall. The entire waterfront would look like this if the flood wall was not in place.

The Kansas City Southern freight yard is protected by the flood wall and has remained dry. The railroad was not taking chances though, and removed all of the rolling stock from the normally crowded yard.

My wife's uncle owns a large farm a few miles south of Vicksburg. Previous floods have inundated the fields, but this is the first time that water has reached the house. Because the extent of the flood was known weeks in advance, they were able to remove all of their belongings from the house. There is four to five feet of water in the house, which is located about two and one-half miles from the Mississippi River.

Andy Morang, who lives in Vicksburg, has lots of pictures of the flood on his blog Urban Decay. In addition to the pictures, Andy has excellent background information on the mechanics of the flood and its effects.