Memphis ready for Mississippi floods
Source: Agencies |
May 10, 2011, Tuesday
|
Print Edition
Print Edition
FORECASTERS say the Mississippi River was due to crest late yesterday at Memphis - hours sooner than previously predicted - but the mayor said the United States city was ready for it.
Mayor AC Wharton said that despite the tightened time frame, he was confident that precautions such as door-to-door warnings have prepared the city. "We don't have as much time, but fortunately we're ready for it," Wharton told CBS television yesterday.
To the South, authorities in Louisiana stepped up their preparations by opening floodgates at a spillway northwest of New Orleans to take pressure off levees in populated areas.
Inmates were also scheduled to be moved from a prison near Baton Rouge.
The Memphis mayor said disasters such as Hurricane Katrina, which flooded parts of New Orleans and other areas in 2005, had shown that flood warnings couldn't simply be issued on television. Authorities spent the weekend knocking on doors and warning residents to abandon their homes before being swamped by waters from the rising Mississippi.
"Door-to-door is a key thing that we're doing," he said, adding there were patrols to prevent looting as people had left their homes behind.
Forecaster Joe Lowery of the National Weather Service office in Memphis said it looked like the river was starting to level out and was due to crest as soon as last night, at about 14.6 meters. Forecasters had previously predicted the crest would come today.
Memphis residents have been abandoning low-lying homes for days as the surging river threatened to crest just shy of the 14.8-meter record, set by a devastating 1937 flood.
The river has swamped houses in Memphis and threatens to consume many more. Over 1,300 homes have been evacuated and some 370 people were in shelters.
Mayor AC Wharton said that despite the tightened time frame, he was confident that precautions such as door-to-door warnings have prepared the city. "We don't have as much time, but fortunately we're ready for it," Wharton told CBS television yesterday.
To the South, authorities in Louisiana stepped up their preparations by opening floodgates at a spillway northwest of New Orleans to take pressure off levees in populated areas.
Inmates were also scheduled to be moved from a prison near Baton Rouge.
The Memphis mayor said disasters such as Hurricane Katrina, which flooded parts of New Orleans and other areas in 2005, had shown that flood warnings couldn't simply be issued on television. Authorities spent the weekend knocking on doors and warning residents to abandon their homes before being swamped by waters from the rising Mississippi.
"Door-to-door is a key thing that we're doing," he said, adding there were patrols to prevent looting as people had left their homes behind.
Forecaster Joe Lowery of the National Weather Service office in Memphis said it looked like the river was starting to level out and was due to crest as soon as last night, at about 14.6 meters. Forecasters had previously predicted the crest would come today.
Memphis residents have been abandoning low-lying homes for days as the surging river threatened to crest just shy of the 14.8-meter record, set by a devastating 1937 flood.
The river has swamped houses in Memphis and threatens to consume many more. Over 1,300 homes have been evacuated and some 370 people were in shelters.
- About Us
- |
- Terms of Use
- |
-
RSS - |
- Privacy Policy
- |
- Contact Us
- |
- Shanghai Call Center: 962288
- |
- Tip-off hotline: 52920043
- 沪ICP证：沪ICP备05050403号-1
- |
- 互联网新闻信息服务许可证：31120180004
- |
- 网络视听许可证：0909346
- |
- 广播电视节目制作许可证：沪字第354号
- |
- 增值电信业务经营许可证：沪B2-20120012
Copyright © 1999- Shanghai Daily. All rights reserved.Preferably viewed with Internet Explorer 8 or newer browsers.
