A black lab puppy speckled with mud stands near its home at 315 Spring Ridge Drive in Hamilton Heights Monday afternoon as evidence of Sunday night’s flooding is seen in the background. Neighbors said the owner of the puppy had said she thought the dog had been washed away.(Melanie Duncan Thortis The Vicksburg Post)

[04/08/03]Students returned to classes under clearing skies today as crews began what will be a lengthy process of clearing debris, rebuilding roads and shoring up shoulders in and around Vicksburg and Warren County.

Sunday’s rain and gusty wind was not followed by more storms Monday, as had been forecast. Still, there was plenty of damage, leading Gov. Ronnie Musgrove and local officials to declare states of emergency.

One focus continued to be the city sewer plant on Rifle Range Road where the flow of water from 8.31 inches of rain in 24 hours overwhelmed treatment facilities, meaning sewage is flowing into the Mississippi River.

“There’re certain times that we’re allowed to do that. It’s certainly not preferable, but flooding of the entire plant is a justifiable reason, and we’ll get it back up and running as soon as we can,” Vicksburg engineer James “Bubba” Rainer said.

Pumps that were inundated are being repaired, and the plant will be back in service with they are reinstalled.

The city’s emergency designation allows the city to contract with cleanup crews and for other work without going through the usually lengthy bid process. Officials said it was too early to tell how much the work will cost.

“When you look and see what happened, it’s very humbling,” said South Ward Alderman Sid Beauman after surveying mudslides and other damage around the city.

Warren County Road Manager Rhea Fuller said county road crews would continue to clear roadways until each is passable, open and safe. It was blocked roads that resulted in closure of almost all area schools Monday.

“We will continue to identify problem areas and work over the next few weeks to clean up roadsides,” Fuller said.

Some county roads were still closed today.

Bovina Cutoff Road and parts of Warriors Trail were closed due to the surge in the Big Black River. The river stage at Yazoo City is at 26.2 feet, down 1.2 feet from Monday. At Bovina, the river is down slightly to 37.8 feet.

A bridge on Freetown Road near Amos Road was closed after wooden support pilings collapsed. A bridge on Possum Hollow Road also remained closed.

The bridge on Fisher Ferry Road over the Hatcher Bayou is expected to be reopened to two lanes today.

Several roads in the city were also damaged by erosion including Olive, Evergreen and Hugo streets. Other streets including Mission 66 and North Washington streets were covered with mud from runoff and from collapsed retaining walls.

Some flooding was also reported in Madison Parish where the Vicksburg Tallulah Regional Airport near Mound was closed due to water running across the runway.

Airport manager Randy Woods said about a 1/2 inch of water had flood the runway. He also said lightning had damaged the airport’s beacon Sunday, but that repairs were made in about 30 minutes.

Vicksburg Warren School District Superintendent Donald Oakes said crews, including Warren County Jail inmates, worked Monday to prepare three classrooms to temporarily replace those destroyed at Redwood Elementary.

Part of the roof on the school’s first-grade wing, which was built in the late 1950s or early 1960s, was torn off by high winds.

Roofing contractors gave school officials preliminary quotes Monday and an architect is expected to visit the school today.

Other areas declared in the governor’s proclamation were Hinds, Yazoo, Rankin, Madison, Grenada, Lauderdale and Lincoln and any other area affected by the weather system.

The Vicksburg Area Chapter of the American Red Cross opened City Auditorium as a shelter Monday afternoon for those left homeless. Executive director Beverly Connelly said the shelter would reopen tonight if emergency officials alert her of a need.

Though forecasters said scattered showers and thunderstorms were a possibility Monday, only .03 inches fell in 24 hours. A 40 percent chance of thunderstorms and scattered showers are slated for this morning. The chance falls to 20 percent this afternoon, said Doug Butts, a forecaster with the National Weather Service in Jackson.