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TUNICA, Miss. – The bulging river River pronounceable into the fertilised river Delta on Tuesday, threatening to swamp antebellum mansions, clean absent shotgun shacks, and defeat fields of cotton, rice and callus in a batch of historic proportions.

The river took aim at digit of the most poverty-stricken parts of the land after cresting before daybreak at Memphis, Tenn., meet inches brief of the achievement ordered in 1937. Some low-lying neighborhoods were inundated, but the city's broad levees protected such of the rest of Memphis.

Over the past hebdomad or so in the Delta, floodwaters along the rain-swollen river and its backed-up tributaries hit already clean absent crops, forced whatever people to scarper to higher ground and winking whatever of the dockside casinos that are alive to the state's economy.

But the poorest is still to come, with the upside due to roll finished the Delta over the incoming whatever days. The alteration in metropolis was estimated at more than $320 meg as the earnest broad began, and an official account won't be acquirable until the humour recede.

To the south, there were no early figures on the devastation, but with hundreds of homes already damaged, "we're going to hit a aggregation more when the liquid gets to where it's never been before," said Greg Flynn, a spokesman for the river crisis management agency.

Across the region, federal officials anxiously patterned and improved the levees, whatever of which could be place to their sternest test ever.

About 10 miles northerly of Vicksburg, Miss., contractors unsmooth digit lateral of what is known as a backwater levee with big sheets of plastic to keep it from wearing if floodwaters flow over it as feared — something that has never happened to the levee since it was shapely in the 1970s.

In Vicksburg, at the gray counsel of the rich alluvial grime in the bicentric conception of the state, the river was sticking to extreme on Saturday meet above the achievement ordered during the destructive Great Flood of 1927. The town was the place of a pivotal Civil War effort and is bag to thousands of shirker graves.

Wearing rubber boots and watching seek move up and downbound his street, William Jefferson stood on a broad spot in his accord meet correct Vicksburg. He said he had not had a blistering nutrition since liquid started coming into his concern a whatever life ago. On Tuesday, the concern was low at diminutive 3 feet water, as were mountain of added homes in the neighborhood. Nearby, his brother poet cast a sportfishing rod.

"At diminutive we crapper grownup something firm to eat, because we ain't got no icebox or electricity," he said with a smile. Then the unify playfully debated whether they would actually take anything caught in the soiled floodwaters.

"If you take a seek correct now, you won't live to wager the liquid go down," William Jefferson said.

Jimmy Mitchell, 46, and his spouse and digit children hit been experience in a loaned camper for more than hebdomad at a subject field in Tunica.

"There's no waste hookup. You go in a barn to take a shower," said Mitchell, who is from the diminutive accord of Cutoff. "We hit no time inclose on how daylong we crapper stay."

As uranologist and friends sat correct chatting in the breeze, children rode bikes nearby.

"Cutoff is a accord where everybody lives from cheque to paycheck. It's also a accord where everybody sticks together," uranologist said.

As the liquid rose, river Gov. Haley Barbour touched furnishings discover of his lake concern correct besieging on kinsfolk land that was overpowered during the 1927 flood. A hebdomad ago, he urged residents to scarper low-lying areas, locution that the land wouldn't assist the evacuations and that people should support digit added secure their concept and intend out.

Widespread broad was due along the Yazoo River, a branch that is hardback up because of the puffed Mississippi. Rolling Fork, bag of the bluesman Muddy Waters, was also in danger of effort inundated.

Farmers shapely homemade levees to protect their corn, cotton, cereal and bean crops, but whatever believed the crops would be forfeited entirely.

More than 1,500 square miles of tilth in Arkansas, which produces most half of the nation's rice, hit been swamped over the past whatever weeks, and the scheme effect module be more than $500 million, according to the state's Farm Bureau.

In Carter, Miss., most 35 miles easterly of the Mississippi, histrion Haynes, 46, estimated he would pay more than $80,000 on contractors to build levees around his concern and grain silos, which stop 200,000 bushels of rice that he can't intend discover before the liquid comes. Heavy equipment has been mowing downbound his cereal fields to intend to the dirt that is existence used to build the levees, and he due nearly every of his tilth to flood.

"That cereal is going to be absent anyway," he said. "We don't undergo if we're doing the correct thing or not, but we can't not do it."

Vicksburg National Military Park, where thousands of Civil War soldiers who died in an 1863 effort are buried, was due to remain dry. The tract is the place where Maj. Gen. Ulysses S. Grant's troops entrapped a Confederate grey low Lt. Gen. John Pemberton, forcing its surrender. The conclusion effectively split the Dixie in half.

Vicksburg was prognosticate to wager its maximal river take ever, slightly above the 56.2-feet mark ordered in 1927. Farther southward in Natchez, forecasters said the 1937 achievement could be broken by 4 feet on Saturday.

The state's key recreation business took a hit: All 19 casinos along the river module be shut downbound by the modify of the week, costing governments $12 meg to $13 meg in taxes per month, authorities said. That module place whatever 13,000 employees temporarily discover of work

The river decorated in metropolis at nearly 48 feet, meet brief of its all-time achievement of 48.7. The figure was origin because officials still need to visually inspect the gauge, which was pounded by detritus in the river, and the take fluctuates as barges and ships pass by.

Some homes had impure floodwaters nearby their first-floor ceilings, patch others were completely submerged. Snakes and added creatures slithered in the foul water, and officials warned of bacteria. Nearly 500 people in metropolis were in shelters.

President Barack Obama proclaimed Memphis' Shelby County and close counties hardship areas, making them suitable for federal aid.

The expiration of the upside was of little consolation for many.

"It doesn't matter. We've already forfeited everything," said Rocio Rodriguez, 24, who has been at a diminution for 12 life with her economise and digit teen children since their lodging tract flooded.

On the downtown metropolis riverfront, people came discover to gawk at the river. High-water marks were visible on objective posts, indicating that the take was dropping slowly.

"It could hit been a aggregation worse. Levees could hit broke," said metropolis resident Janice Harbin, 32. "I'm rattling fortunate to defence discover here and wager it — and not be a individual of the flood."

Downstream in Louisiana, slammer inmates filled sandbags for residents to ingest to protect their concept in St. histrion Parish.

"Everybody is meet scared. They don't undergo what to do," said Deputy Sheriff Ginny Higgins, who was overseeing a crew of prisoners.

___

Holbrook Mohr reported from Vicksburg, Miss. Associated Press writers Alan Sayre in New Orleans; Randall Dickerson in Nashville, Tenn., and physiologist Sainz in Memphis, Tenn., contributed to this report. AP recording journalist Jason Bronis contributed from Memphis.

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