Rising water in the Yazoo Backwater Area has prompted a 1 p.m. community meeting Feb. 1 at Eagle Lake United Methodist Church, 16682 Mississippi 465, to discuss the possibility of flooding affecting the area.

“Some of the residents up here are concerned about the rising water, and what’s not being done and what needs to be done,” Eagle Lake Fire Chief Earl Wallace said. “This is just a general public information meeting.”

The meeting, Wallace said, is open to all residents in the Yazoo Backwater area who were affected by the 2019 flood.

He said Warren County Emergency Management director John Elfer and Michele Connelly, United Way of West Central Mississippi executive director, will be at the meeting to talk with residents, adding Warren County Sheriff Martin Pace and Peter Nimrod, chief engineer for the Mississippi Levee Board, are expected to attend.

The Yazoo Backwater Area was underwater for 219 days, from Jan. 4, 2019 to Aug. 10, 2019, and reached a record crest of 98.2 feet on May 23. Flooding damaged homes in Eagle Lake, overtopped Mississippi highways 465, 16 and 1, and covered 548,000 acres of land — 231,000 of which was cropland.

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers closed the Steele Bayou Control Structure Jan.16 as the Mississippi River continued its rise.

As of Friday, the Mississippi was at 45.57 at Vicksburg and forecasted to reach 46 feet Monday. Steele Bayou was at 92.28 feet on the landside and 93.38 on the riverside.