Mississippi residents raced to shore up faltering levees Wednesday in hopes of holding back raging floodwaters that soaked cities upstream and are bearing down on one of the most poverty-stricken regions of the country.
In the town of Greenville, about 100 miles northwest of Jackson, officials were busy trying to patch up "sand boils," spots where the Mississippi River was undermining the levee defenses.
Linda Wright was among a crowd of people who gathered near the river's edge to get a glimpse of the rising waters that threaten their homes and farm fields.
"It's just amazing the river has come up this far," she said. "It just shows you there's no limit to what nature can do. We just have to trust God."
NPR's Debbie Elliott, reporting from Mississippi, said "everyone's worst fear" is that the pressure from the flood surge will cause the tributaries to start flowing backward — something that hasn't happened since the Great Flood of 1927. If that happened, low-lying areas would be swamped and levees potentially breached.
"Right now, city officials think the levees will protect cities like Greenville, will protect Natchez and Vicksburg," Elliott said.
In Vicksburg, the site of a pivotal Civil War battle, William Jefferson paddled slowly down his street in a small boat, past his house and around his church, both flooded from the bulging river.
"Half my life is still in there," he told The Associated Press, pointing to the small white house swamped by several feet of water. "I hate to see it when I go back in."
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