VIDALIA, La. — Crews of able-bodied Southern Baptist
volunteers have been transporting the prized possessions of the elderly and
infirm in Vidalia, La., across the Mississippi River to storage in Natchez,
Miss.
Just in case.
“I see no problems with our levee system functioning as it’s supposed to,”
Reynold Minsky, president of the Fifth District Levee Board, has stated. “We’re
going to have a three-foot clearance,” Minsky, a deacon at First
Baptist Church in Lake Providence, La.,
projected, referring to floodwater levels at the district’s 257 miles of levees
that haven’t been seen since the 1930s — or maybe ever.
Rumors of impending devastation have been swirling during the first half of May
as river waters were coursing down from where the “Mighty Mississipp” gains
strength from the Ohio River. Minsky as well as Corps of
Engineer officials and city/state leaders said the dangers of rumors that fuel
panic were worse than the flooding that could come when waters pass Lake
Providence in northeast Louisiana near the Arkansas and Mississippi borders and
continue flowing 100 miles south to Vidalia and beyond.
“We’re stressing to our people not to panic, but just to be prepared,” said Bill
McCullin, pastor of First Baptist
Church of Vidalia. “Yes this is a serious situation but leaders
are doing everything they can do.
“This (possibility of flooding) has unified a community that needed to be
unified,” McCullin continued. “People are thinking about each other. Even
though we’re at the early stages of this, we can still see God at work.”
Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal, in a May 4 visit to the area, said, “We know we’re
facing historic levels of water coming through Louisiana,
but we’re determined to do everything we can to protect people’s lives,
property and livelihoods.”
In Vidalia, the levee has never been tested beyond 58 feet, said McCullin of First
Baptist Vidalia. “Beyond 60 feet they really do not know. (The
Army Corps of Engineers) has confidence is in its ability to hold what’s
coming, but their uncertainty is that they don’t know for sure.”
City leaders encouraged Vidalia residents to move treasured possessions to Natchez,
which is on a high bluff, the pastor said. “They’re not predicting they are
going to have a problem,” McCullin added. “I’m trusting in what the Corps of
Engineers reported.”
A town meeting was held May 4, to quell rumors and give solid information, but
the room could only hold 50 people, so McCullin invited the mayor to First
Baptist the next evening for a repeat session. About 300
people participated in the second gathering.
Especially worrisome for Vidalia is its $75 million Riverfront
Center, situated between the river
and the levee. The Riverfront Center
includes a medical center with state-of-the-art equipment, a hotel, convention
center and welcome center, plus two water wells. Everyone agrees the riverfront
area will flood. The Corps of Engineers, National Guardsmen, city workers and
volunteers are surrounding each of the four buildings with “Hesco baskets” —
4-by-8-foot canvas containers filled with sand. Pumps would be placed inside
the Hesco walls to remove any seepage.
In a worst-case scenario, First Baptist’s offices
would move to First
Baptist Church
in Natchez.
The Mississippi River flooding won’t stop until it gets
to the Gulf of Mexico.
At this point, prayer is what’s needed most of all, McCullin said — prayer that
God would calm the hearts of Christians and that they would use the opportunity
to bring others to faith and trust in Jesus.
“Once it hits the crest, it will take about a month to six weeks for (floodwaters)
to get down to the 48-foot flood stage. Will the levee system hold that much
water for that much time? … I would rather prepare for the worst and get the
best,” McCullin said. “We’re stressing to our people not to panic, but just to
be prepared. It’s just better to be safe.”
(EDITOR’S NOTE — Willoughby is
managing editor of the Baptist Message, newsjournal of the Louisiana Baptist
Convention.)
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