Mississippi towns submerged in floodwaters

Small towns along the Mississippi River are being inundated as cresting floodwaters flow south toward the Gulf of Mexico. Many residents in the worst hit areas along the river already face desperate poverty and lack flood insurance...

Across the region, thousands of people have been forced to leave their homes and stand to lose everything to the floodwaters. Millions of acres of crops have been lost, and damage estimates are well into the billions of dollars.

Mississippi’s Republican Governor Haley Barbour, while asserting that the levees would hold, urged residents to undertake voluntary evacuations from communities within the Delta. At a May 12 press conference, Barbour stated that the levees in the northern half of the state were “very much intact,” although major devastation was expected in the southern portion, where the flood controls are a patchwork system of smaller and privately-maintained levees, some built to protect casinos...

In the unincorporated town of Tunica Cutoff south of Memphis, every home was flooded. The Memphis Commercial Appeal reported that the community was completely submerged in water measuring 40 feet deep in some places. Because of new housing codes that require houses be built above the “100-year flood” plain, the cost of recovery may signal the end of the town. Most residents of the town had no flood insurance. Many dwellings were little more than long-term campsites with trailers and campers...

http://www.wsws.org/articles/2011/may2011/miss-m13.shtml