Oktibbeha County has asked the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers for a set of pipes to drain the Oktibbeha County Lake Dam to a few feet above the bottom in order to relieve pressure on the levee, which started to show early signs of breaching Tuesday morning and prompted a warning and 24-hour monitoring from county leaders.
The board of supervisors voted unanimously in a special-call meeting Thursday to grant county Emergency Management Agency Director Kristen Campanella the authority to submit the request to the Mississippi EMA, which will then submit the request to the corps of engineers. Ryan Reves, the dam safety manager for the Vicksburg district, said the county can use the pipes as long as they are needed, but the corps first needs to determine how many pipes are available and in what size, pick them up and bring them to the county lake, so it is currently unknown how soon the pipes will arrive.
“We’ll expedite that as quickly as we can,” Reves told the board.
Campanella told The Dispatch this morning that, while she had submitted the requests for pumps and other assistance from the Corps of Engineers, authorities are “still working on the logistics” for those requests.
The warning will upgrade to an emergency and the recommendation to evacuate will become a mandate if water starts streaming out of the levee or if the mudslide in the seeping area of the levee reaches the pavement on County Lake Road, Campanella said Wednesday. A breach could flood 17,500 acres of nearby land and force about 250 people to evacuate at least 130 households. The dam has held steady for three nights.
“Our risk level has not changed, but you need to understand that if we get another big rain this weekend like they say we’re going to get, our risk level increases,” County Engineer Clyde Pritchard told the board.
After the water level goes down, engineers will cut off the dam’s primary spillway in order to keep the water level low, he said.
The portion of County Lake Road between Riviera Road and Walter Bell Road will close indefinitely as soon as the pipes arrive, but the public should avoid that stretch of road anyway to allow the county to work on the levee, Pritchard said.
The county has been seeking federal and state funds to replace the levee, emergency spillway and floodgate valve for the past several months, and the project would cost $8 million. The county had tried to minimize pressure on the levee by limiting the amount of water in the dam since 2016, when a Mississippi Department of Environmental Quality inspection confirmed the levee needed repairs, but it is no longer possible to keep the water at least five feet below a normal level, Pritchard said.
Emergency preparedness
The board unanimously voted to accept two proclamations of a state of emergency, one for Tuesday and a new one for Saturday, since Campanella said the signs of breaching likely manifested because of Saturday’s storms and flooding.
Both OCH Regional Medical Center and Mississippi State University Parking and Transit Services can move citizens in wheelchairs away from their homes near the lake, and each has moved one person since Tuesday, Campanella said.
The Red Cross-designated overnight shelter at the First Baptist Church Outreach Center had 16 guests Wednesday night, and some of the same people stayed there again last night, volunteer Wanda Webb said.
The Oktibbeha County Sheriff’s Office is on standby to alert the residents near the lake if the levee breaches, Sheriff Steve Gladney said.
“If the call comes out at night, anytime, whenever, we’re going to send everybody we have through all the neighborhoods and streets (in the area) with sirens and lights and make as much racket as we can to wake everybody up,” Gladney said.
District 3 Supervisor Marvell Howard lives just behind the levee and has been monitoring it alongside authorities. He told The Dispatch he appreciates the “beginning stages” of a solution.
“I’m glad we put a plan in place at this particular moment, but that does not alleviate any of the danger that’s there right now,” he said.
Kristi Moore has lived near the lake all 37 years of her life and is raising her children there. They would go to her sister’s home in Starkville if they have to evacuate, she said.
She shared some of her neighbors’ frustrations that the county did not replace the levee before danger became imminent.
“They just need to get everything fixed,” she said.
You can help your community
Quality, in-depth journalism is essential to a healthy community. The Dispatch brings you the most complete reporting and insightful commentary in the Golden Triangle, but we need your help to continue our efforts. In the past week, our reporters have posted 43 articles to cdispatch.com. Please consider subscribing to our website for only $2.30 per week to help support local journalism and our community.