The low Mississippi River this year is offering up a possible windfall to the unemployed of Vicksburg and the area.

With unemployment in Warren County at nearly double digits in August, the last reporting period available, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers announced Monday that up to 130 temporary positions will be available for the 2012-13 revetment season starting in December, Corps District spokesman Kavanaugh Breazeale said.

Ranging in pay from $10.59 to $25.62 per hour, available positions include deckhands, revetment workers, engineer equipment operators, food-service operators, cooks, tying-tool repairers and marine carpenters.

Breazeale said the additional positions are open because of grant money stemming from the 2011 flood.

“We do it every year,” Breazeale said. “There’s a low-water season that starts around September. We usually go through December but there are some extra months because of the low water conditions and the emergency funding we received because of the historic 2011 flood.

“The flood did damage in sporadic places along the river and this goes in to help eliminate some of that damage done,” he added.

Breazeale said the positions would last from two weeks to six months, with work anticipated to extend through February. Regardless of position, workers will spend almost the entire duration of their employment on the river.

“It’s 24 hours-a-day, seven-days-a week,” Breazeale said. “They’ll work in shifts. With most of the jobs, you will eat, live and sleep on the self-contained conglomerate.”

Breazeale said that because the Corps places revetments each year, the jobs could lead to future employment in the next low-water season.

“It could open up the door for future seasonal work,” Breazeale said. “With any job, anywhere, they want more experience. That means less time to train people. These are very unique positions and require a lot of training.”

Each year, the Corps’ Mat Sinking Unit ties together hundreds of thousands of 4-by-6-foot concrete mats and places them on the banks of the river to prevent erosion and protect submerged river banks.

“They are permanent,” Breazeale said. “They’re basically a conglomerate of concrete mats that form a section that’s 24 feet long. Those are tied together and rolled onto the banks. They help with erosion. It creates a buffer, so to say.”

Breazeale said the amount of work done depends mainly on how much funding is secured.

“Now that we’re completely opposite of where we were with the flood, lower conditions allow the workers to stay longer,” Breazeale said. “It may go longer, we think at least until February.”

The unemployment rate in Warren County in August was 9.6 percent, down from about 11 percent a month earlier, according to the Mississippi Department of Employment Services.

During the 2012-13 revetment season, the Corps hopes to place 442,786 squares covering about 1,018 acres of embankment. So far, 167,391 squares have been placed to cover about 384 acres of river banks.

The Mat Sinking Unit is unique to the Corps and comprises the Motor Vessel Benyaurd with two quarter boats, the M.V. William James, which houses the mat-sinking plant, and the M.V. Harrison.