It has been said that every person, at some point in their lives, gets 15 minutes of fame.

Cities are no different. Vicksburg found itself in the national spotlight — a place we are not used to being — as the Mississippi Rivers waters rose to historic proportions. State television news crews led the procession of trucks across Interstate 20. As waters surpassed flood stage and the possibilities of this flood surpassing 1927 levels, the national media arrived. The national coverage was cursory and left many holes to answer.

As a former Yankee with family still “up there,” the questions came from everyone: Have you floated away yet? Is the town flooding?

Parts of the city prone to flooding have flooded. Some areas normally spared from floods have been inundated. But the city itself is fine. It has been said many times if Vicksburg were to flood, Dallas would flood.

A story later appeared from an Internet site saying in the first paragraph that the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers flooded Vicksburg to save New Orleans.

The Corps opened the Morganza Floodway to take pressure off of Baton Rouge, New Orleans and miles of industry in between. Imagine the outcry had the Corps not opened the floodway and the levees in New Orleans failed? You think Katrina was bad.

An estimated 300 died in the 1927 flood; one has died in this flood — and he entered the water past a barricade. If anything, the Corps needs a standing ovation.

A week ago, an Associated Press photographer snapped a picture of county resident Christopher Lynn in a small boat on his property. In the background were four school buses lined up.

AP distributed the picture worldwide. Someone in Minnesota, seeing the picture in a local paper, wrote us wondering why our officials failed to remove the buses from flooding, inferring officials were to blame.

Anyone around here who has driven roads after the pavement ends — you know, to places past Pop Redditt’s Store — know that broken-down buses are used for deer camps and storage. A lot of the world has never been past Redditt’s.

While the national media turned its spotlights on our town, it failed on many levels.

Those who stay here after the cable news anchors leave know the real story. It’s much different than portrayed nationally.