Dear Governor Reeves:
First, I want to tell you how happy I was to see your inauguration as our governor. Now, you are in a position to become our hero. Thank you for your leadership during the flood crisis. Some of us have been waiting since 1979 for someone to step up to the plate and hit us a home run to protect our homes and businesses.
My house was built in 1962, the same year that the dam was built that created the Ross Barnett Reservoir. In 1973, my parents bought it as their executive “dream home” that was meant to be their retirement home. Then in the spring of 1979, the operators of the reservoir purposely let the water get sky high for a fishing rodeo. When we received over 15 inches of rain in central Mississippi, there was no place for the water to go, so the operators opened the gates and flooded Jackson and all points below. My parents had to live through the nightmare of having 28 ½ inches of filthy water in their beautiful home. It took months of cleaning, sterilizing, rebuilding, refurnishing, and then recuperating. Like everyone else in the area, my parents did not have flood insurance, because Northeast Jackson was not in the official flood plain. Well, 1979 put us in the flood plain. Daddy bought flood insurance, as soon as it was available.
We were told that the Great Flood of 1979 was a 300-year flood and that it would never happen again. However, just four years later, the reservoir was, once again, too high to accommodate the spring rains. My mother called me at work and asked me to come home. She and Daddy had gotten a big truck and were having everything taken out of the house as a precaution. The year was 1983, and the water came halfway up the driveway and then stopped. Had Mayor Dale Danks not shown leadership in having all the creeks dredged, it could have been a lot worse. Unfortunately, the mayor could not get what he needed from the governor, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, and the Pearl River Valley Water Supply District to hammer out a workable plan to remedy the problem of Pearl River flooding once and for all.
Here it is February 2020 and the honest, hardworking citizens of Jackson still don’t have any peace, because the leaders of this state have refused to put on their big boy pants and do the work to keep us all safe in our homes and businesses. It isn’t rocket science. It is time to issue an executive order making the Ross Barnett Reservoir a flood control device with its primary mission that of controlling the Pearl River and its flow south. Any recreational use from now on would be secondary to the primary responsibility of reducing or eliminating any flooding events in Jackson, Flowood, and all points south.
It is time for the true leaders of Mississippi to show a collective backbone and make some decisions that will make a difference in the quality of life in our state:
1. Drain the reservoir down to 200 feet or below, until a plan can be put into place that will prioritize flood control over recreational use.
2. Dredge all creeks in the Jackson area and line the creeks with rip rap rock.
3. Prosecute all parties who throw anything into the gutters, creeks, storm drains, the Pearl River, or the city streets. That would include plastic bottles, beer bottles, fast food trash, any kind of Styrofoam, oil and other dangerous liquids, cigars and cigarettes, and anything that is not biodegradable.
4 Prosecute all parties guilty of dumping any household or business waste on the ground or in any waterway. That would include tires, mattresses, sinks, garbage cans, TVs, etc.
5 Prosecute any law enforcement personnel who witness littering or dumping of any kind and don’t take the appropriate action against the perpetrators.
Beverly J. Clarke
