Flood

Here's our ride.


My dad took us up in a small plane so we could see the water, the flooding.



Here we are.




Everything looks normal when we first get up in the air.





We hadn't flown far south before we saw the flooding.



It’s been all over the national news and the local coverage has been even more so. I’ve seen the newscasts. I’ve seen the photos on Facebook and via email. Seeing it, though, even from 400 feet in the air, was something else.

That's not a lake.



The farm shop below could well hold a combine, used to harvest corn, that cost the farmer approximately $275,000. If he's like most farmers, he pays a fat note to the bank each month for that loan.





This is the Yazoo City airport.




Those things sticking up? Irrigation systems, a center pivot. The irony. The water is probably four to five feet deep.



The forests are covered with water. My dad commented that an awful lot of wildlife was killed in the flood. They have nowhere to go.


Some parts of the area are overrun with wild hogs. Deer have moved and are eating so much of the new cotton plant growth that they’re a nuisance.





I keep thinking about the people who live there when they first get back. The mosquitoes that will cover the place. The mud and the sludge. The smell. The drowned rats. The snakes. In their house. Their home.



Those things bobbing in the water are aerators for catfish ponds. They weigh about 1,500 pounds and cost about $25,000 dollars. Each.




That green stuff is someone’s corn crop. Week before last it was chest high. Now it’s flattened. I asked if crop insurance covers a natural disaster. What about people who don’t have crop insurance? Not only have they lost the year’s crop, they've also lost their means for the entire year.



The Yazoo River isn't protected by a levee in certain sections between the Whittington Auxilliary Channel and the river channel. The flooding is from backwater from the Yazoo River.



We circled around and headed back to the air strip.

These are catfish ponds. They're about to ten to fifteen acres a piece.



Cutting wheat.



Irrigating. The irony.



I took tons of pictures. My dad took The Child up to see it. I don’t know how interesting he found it but we wanted him to see it. It’s historical. Here’s hoping we don’t see anything else like it.

Heading in.








Back on the ground safe and sound.