By Staff
RISING WATER Jane Howse watches from the front porch of her father's home on Old Eighth Street Road Friday as her grandchildren, Jacob, left, and Jeffrey Manley, play in the flood waters that saturated the area for the second time in less than three weeks. Photo by Paula Merritt / The Meridian Star.
By Steve Gillespie / staff writer
April 26, 2003
Heavy rains that swamped portions of Lauderdale County Thursday night left many yards and some homes and businesses flooded again from waters that overflowed the banks of Okatibbee Creek.
For some families, it was a harsh repeat of the disaster that befell them in the storms of April 6-7 and came just as they were beginning to recover a sense of normalcy.
One of the hardest hit areas was along Old Eighth Street Road, where Patti and Charles Howington live in a trailer. The water rose 13 inches inside their home after the April 6-7 rains. Much of their furniture was ruined and they had no insurance.
Charles said the television was one of the few items salvaged the last time, when two days of excessive rains washed through the same area. Charles said he was about to do repair work in their trailer with lumber he stacked on a bed, hoping it would be safe from water late Friday morning when he and his wife left their home because of rising waters.
On Friday, representatives of the Red Cross dropped by again, giving the Howington's and their Boston terrier, Miss Bud, lunch and water to drink as they watched over their home from a safe distance. Their road had been closed.
The Howingtons' neighbors are family. They live between Patti's father, Jerry Scott, and Scott's uncle, U.O. Scott.
When it rains
it pours
Clarence Butler, executive director of the Lauderdale County Emergency Management Agency, said the same areas damaged earlier this month were the target of flood waters again.
Many county and city roads, according to Butler and Monty Jackson, Meridian's public works director, were closed Friday morning, including State Boulevard Extension, Bounds Road, Chandler Road, 29th Avenue near Sowashee Creek, and King Road.
The Lauderdale County School District called off school for the day.
Butler said he was also busy assessing the damage Friday afternoon.
Lauderdale County was one of 28 counties that qualified for federal aid because of the previous flood and storm damage. Butler said he is still working on finding a building that can be used to serve people from Lauderdale, Clarke and Newton counties who are seeking funds to repair damages to homes, businesses and public property.
John Baxter, warning coordination officer with the National Weather Service's Meridian office, said a band of rain swept through the northern part of Lauderdale County Thursday night.
While the National Weather Service's gauge at Key Field recorded 5.12 inches of rain as of 7 a.m. Friday, the rain gauge maintained at Okatibbee Reservoir showed 7.75 inches of rainfall. Rain gauges maintained by volunteers in the county recorded 8.26 inches about seven miles south of Collinsville, 8.65 inches in the Topton area, about three miles north of Marion, and 5.25 inches of rain about five miles south of Little Rock.
Baxter said the county has experienced about three times its average rainfall amount for April, which is about 5.5 inches.
Keeping a close watch
In the home of Dianne and Pat Howse, also Old Eighth Street Road residents, water rose 29 inches again same as it did after the rains on April 6 and 7.
The Howses also lost furniture earlier this month. They were staying in a camper and were being visited by Dianne's brother and his wife from Chattanooga, Tenn.
Other Old Eighth Street Road residents, like Sharon and John Chisolm, Lily and Benny Revels and O.Z. Moore, didn't have water in their homes, but were watching closely as it seemed to be receding by about 4 p.m.
Waves in Moore's front yard crashed against the top steps of his front porch from his great-grandchildren who played in the water.
The Chisolms have lived at their Old Eighth Street Road residence, close to the Jaycee Soccer Complex and Q.V. Sykes Park, for about seven years.
Lily Revels cautioned people wading down her street about a "big snake" she had seen swimming around and, at Mr. Moore's house, there were reports that an alligator had been spotted in the area.
Dianne Howse said the snakes were worse with the previous flood as well as the fire ants.