Small Town Residents’ Homemade Dams Saved Their Houses From Flooding

It’s a painfully tense moment for the residents of Vicksburg, Mississippi. They’ve done everything they can to protect their homes and now they just need to wait and see if their efforts will pay off. The flood waters are rising dramatically outside their makeshift dams — but will the structures hold?

Inevitable disaster

Vicksburg sits along the Yazoo River, which cuts through the states of Mississippi and Louisiana. Intense rainfall has recently washed over the small city and that’s led the water levels of the Yazoo to rise sharply. The residents of Vicksburg know it in their bones: severe flooding is inevitable.

River of Death

The Yazoo has a pretty sinister nickname: the River of Death. It’s unclear where exactly that title came from but it may be a reference to the indigenous Yazoo tribe who were wiped out in the area. On the other hand, the name might be a nod to the intensity of the river’s currents, as they’ve claimed more than a few lives over the years.

Panic stations

The residents of Vicksburg know about the Yazoo River’s reputation better than most. You can imagine, then, the sense of panic that set in once it became clear this latest bout of rainfall was going to be a problem. Flooding was becoming a certainty and it’d threaten absolutely everybody who lived in the area.

Acting quickly

Something had to be done — and fast. The residents couldn’t just sit idly by and watch the floodwaters sweep over their homes and destroy their livelihoods. No, they had to do something drastic. They needed to take matters into their own hands. But how could they safeguard themselves against the fury of nature?