The Steele Bayou Gates
No more water
The South Delta in Mississippi was flooded for six months in 2019. Most of the water that came as an uninvited guest, who stayed too long, has finally drained off of the land via the Steele Bayou Gates. I posted a video of the water leaving the area through the gates further down in this article.
Unfortunately, the damage is done.
The people in this area are reminded of the Forgotten Backwater Flood of 2019 every time they look outside. They are reminded that they still need the pumps to be passed and built so that this will never happen again.
First, the water stain lines that remain are a daily reminder. These stain lines are everywhere. People can see them on trees, signs, houses, and sadly, the gravestones of family members. If I saw a water stain line on one of my relative’s gravestones, it would break my heart.
Another way they are reminded of the flooding disturbed me as I took a left on Hwy 16 in Rolling Fork recently. I drove from Rolling Fork to Satartia when driving back to Jackson from my hometown of Greenville.
This is a 52-mile stretch.
Barren, desert wasteland
Normally, there are beautiful fields of crops all along the highway this time of year~~cotton, corn, and soybeans.
Instead, if someone asked me what month it was solely based on what I was seeing, I would have said it was November or December. The reason I would have said that is that there are no crops in the fields from Rolling Fork to Satartia.
This is a 52-mile stretch.
But even with that being said, it really didn’t even look like November or December. And it was 100 degrees outside that day. I would have known something was “off” because when it’s 100 degrees outside, normally, crops are in the fields.
What it really looked like was a barren, desert wasteland like a place you would read about it the Bible. Like a place that was once vibrant and thriving and now, poof, nothing. To me, even the color of everything was “different”. Everything looked waterlogged and tired, which makes it ironic that a waterlogged area could look like a barren, desert wasteland.
Yes, the area will hopefully eventually recover one day, but seeing it like this does something to you.
There are some positives. The roads in this area that had been previously closed, which I wrote about in my article 5 eye-opening issues from the forgotten backwater flood, are now open. Secondly, Junae’s Grocery in Holly Bluff is now open again. She closed down for a period of time during the flood.
Preparing for the future
But, the damage is done.
For example, my husband has to clear the debris and prepare the fields for next year’s crop. Doing this costs money. It costs money to run the equipment. They already spent money last year getting the ground ready. They spent the money to get the ground ready for their uninvited guest~~water.
This year, he will prepare the land with borrowed money which he normally pays back with income from sold crops. Unfortunately, there will simply be very few sold crops this year.
He was only able to plant 20% of the land that he leases. He doesn’t own any of his land, but leases from seven different landlords, and some of them are family members. Imagine if you were to make 20% of your salary this year through no fault of your own and have to depend on crop insurance and government relief to ‘help’. (#finishthepumps)
My husband has also informed me that next year is looking very rocky. There are many reasons for this, but for simplicity purposes, the ripple effect that I have talked about in a previous post called 5 Eye-Opening Issues From the Forgotten Backwater Flood sums it up.
If the farmers do recover from this, there are still more questions and unknowns. Will the soil be fertile after having water on it for six months? Do farmers need to spend more money than usual to properly prepare the soil? Will this flooding happen again while we wait to see if the government and the EPA pass the pumps and build them?
The Steele Bayou Gates
How did the water finally leave the area? Very slowly through the Steele Bayou Gates. This video shows the water leaving the area. The government will build the pumps at Steele Bayou if they are ever passed.
According to an article written by Alex Rozier for Mississippi Today, “Just north of Vicksburg, sits the Steele Bayou Control Structure, a set of gates that the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers closes when the Mississippi River rises above the water level inside the structure.”
The Corps of Engineers opened and closed the gates several times during this six-month event. The draining is a slow process, and it took several weeks for the water to leave the South Delta once the gates opened “permanently” in July. The water levels dropped at a rate of six inches per day.
I had never seen pictures or videos of the water leaving the Steele Bayou Gates before this year.
In addition to the levees and gates, the government and EPA must pass the pumps to help alleviate the flooding in the South Delta when the Mississippi River is high. To learn more about why the pumps were never put in as promised, you can read 92 years of the Yazoo Backwater Project in 1400 words.
The future
Some farmers may not be able to farm any longer due to this year’s losses.
There is a misconception that farmers “poor mouth” but get tons of money from crop insurance claims and government assistance. This is a misconception that I’m aware of because I live it.
Dr. Keith Coble, a professor at Mississippi State University, validated me when he said this about farmers and crop insurance in the Mississippi Today article, “Even with the insurance, in all likelihood you’re going to absorb a pretty significant loss. It (having crop insurance) will help but it won’t make them whole.”
As with anything, some farmers will be “fine” eventually. For many others, this may be their last year or second to last year to farm. This has been a year that will take a long time to recover from. The ripple effect reaches many. #finishthepumps
How has the Yazoo Backwater Flood affected you? Have you ever even heard of the Yazoo Backwater Flood? Please comment below.
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